


Until Memories fade away *hiatus*

by LenKiryuu



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-04-30 13:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5164829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LenKiryuu/pseuds/LenKiryuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the age of 18, Tony Stark starts his classes on MIT. Used to being the center of attention, as the son of the owner of Stark Industries, one of the most popular multinational technology company ever gave him a lot of attention, even more because he had always stood out due to his intelligence, he will get overwhelmed by Loki, a freshman who couldn't care less about his name and reputation. Tony doesn't remember meeting Loki before and Loki just wants to forget it and never mention again. Intrigued, Tony will start seeking answers by his own methods and Loki only wants to get away from him, but things will get more complicated when Loki sees himself stuck with the arrogant guy.<br/>•College AU•</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Let's Start.

**Author's Note:**

> Since I have been wanting for quite a long time to write something about this pairing, I choose to write this.  
> English is not my first language, so I apologize before hand for any mistake I make!
> 
> Hi, Len here. Due to the depression I've been dealing with for the past years, I haven't been able to upload this story. I plan on keep it up, but I don't know how much it'll take me. So, keep that in mind if you plan to read this it.

He angrily hit the alarm clock that was emitting that annoying sound. If he had been completely awake, he would've been have to break it.

He realized he was late and cursed himself for going to that party last night, or for not having an alarm with a stronger sound, no, that wouldn't be really convenient; he hated alarm-clocks. Why didn't Jarvis wake him up? Right, he wasn't at his house. Where was he? Ah, but Jarvis was also on his phone, where had he left it? Truth to be told, the party has been amazing, regretting it didn't seem right.

"Late on the first day, huh?" He said, throwing away the blankets covering his body and stretched. "I think I know who'll be teachers' favorite."

Where was he, actually? At one of his friends' house, right? He was twelve percent sure of that.

He went downstairs and got to his precious, precious car and slid to the front seat.

"Jarv, where am I?"

 _"_ _At Ms. Anders, I would adventure myself to say, sir"_  Replied the British voice inside the car.

"Hmm," He murmured, "Was she the one in bed with me?"

" _Seems like it, sir."_

"Interesting."

Well, at least he knew he hadn't hooked up with her; he still had most of his clothes on when he woke up.

"Hey, Jarv, do you know where I left my phone?" He asked searching under the seat.

" _The GPS indicates it is still inside the house, sir."_

 _"_ Good, good. It's great to know it hadn't been stolen," He commented, getting off the car and walking to the trunk.

Which would be a shame, he thought. It was one of its class, he had made the design by himself.

He grabbed a bag with clean clothes from the back of the car. Of course, he was  _Tony Stark_  and Tony Stark was always prepared; nothing took him by surprise. Neither would he allow himself going on his first day smelling like alcohol and sweat. He got off from his car, entered once again to the house and  _oh, surprise!_  his phone was resting on an arm char. Tony picked it and started searching for the bathroom. Every house had one, right?

Tony went to the bathroom with the purpose of taking a shower, he was late anyway. And he  _had_  to take off the dirty smell of alcohol surrounding him.

He got dressed up with a Black Sabbath t-shirt and jeans, ready to take his car and go to the university, which was closer than he thought, because it didn't take as much time as he had guessed it would. That or was the fact of not giving a look to the speedometer while he drove what made him contemn the traveled distance.

Once he arrived, Tony noticed there were people walking around aimlessly. He blessed the opening ceremony that he just had remembered, the same one he was supposed to attend and he walked to the auditorium he had been told to. Tony pulled the door and opened it, walking inside, dedicating a quick look to the room, searching for an unoccupied seat. He found one at the penultimate row, well, at least he didn't have to sit on the front.

Tony let his things at the table and sat down carelessly, thanking anyone that the teacher wasn't there yet. Looking quickly to his phone, Tony realized he wasn't  _that_  late, which meant that maybe he had exaggerated with the speed this time, or maybe he had got up earlier than he thought or maybe he had found a  _wormhole_ , which would be extremely cool. Tony made a mental memo for search information about it later.

Finding nothing better to do, Tony gazed the guy sitting on the seat to his right, who was concentrated making some kind of sketch on his notebook.

"Hey," Tony greeted in a casual way.

"Hello," the guy replied without looking up. Tony thought it was pretty rude of him, although, Tony wasn't the most polite person in the world, either. Besides, his discontent was because it was the first time in many years he was ignored. For the-god-he-didn't-believe-in's sake! He was Tony Stark!  _That Tony Stark_. Who the hell did that guy thought he was to act as if he didn't know about him? Well, maybe he didn't know him, but that only helped to hurt more his ego.

Tony decided to leave the guy alone, he must be really focused to ignore him.  _How was that even possible!?_ Maybe he had a rough day, maybe he got up too early and was angry because the goddamned excuse of ceremony still hasn't started, which made sense because he was checking the watch on his left wrist every five minutes, or maybe he was desperate to go to the bathroom or, well, the reason didn't matter, it wasn't his business. Tony pulled his phone off his pocket again and began losing time with pointless games until the teacher came, or who Tony assumed as the teacher.

"Whatever you had learnt at school is utterly useless. Good morning, kids. I'm Nicholas Fury, your director and I hope I will not have to see your faces more time than needed." He said before sitting on his desk.

"How encouraging," Tony mumbled to himself, blocking the screen of his phone and putting it back on his pocket. He didn't have that much battery, anyway.

"When I say your name, you'll come here to get your schedule, ok?" Fury, giving all the honor to his last name, started calling the students in alphabetic order, starting with the 'Z'. Tony wondered what could be passing in the director's mind to make him take that decision and he threw a look at the guy next to him, who still didn't look away from the notebook.

Names went and came, student went from to their seats and Tony was bored. Maybe everything would've been better if he had gotten up later. It was his fault, anyway, Tony didn't check the clock before leaving. Besides, why was a ceremony necessary? Oh, that happened when you got one of the best results on the admission entrance test, if not the best. However, he would have preferred to go for a delicious coffee.  _Oh._  Tony remembered he hasn't had one before getting out from Andrew's house. How could he leave in the morning without a coffee!? Tony wouldn't tolerate it! The moment he could get out from this boring place, Tony would fill his lack of caffeine.

"Antony Stark."

His internal monologue was interrupted by a deep voice coming from the front of the auditorium. It took a millisecond to Tony to realize it was Fury who was talking.

"Tony." he corrected. Nobody,  _no one_  called him 'Anthony'.

Tony got up and started walking to the desk while he questioned the efficiency of the method used to deliver the schedules, it was a huge waste of time and Tony was about to tell him, but the patch stuck on his face stopped him. Not because he was scared, mind you, of course he wasn't scared; it was just… Tony didn't think it would be convenient to start with the wrong foot – _or eye-_  with the director. He picked the schedule before Fury could handed it to him, because Tony didn't like  _people_ handing him things and went back to his seat while Fury called another student behind his back.

Walking to his seat, Tony became aware of the gaze the guy -who was a moment ago just watching to his notebook- was giving him now repeating his name in a whisper, as if it brought him memories of yore, narrowing his eyes in a hard-to-read expression, which Tony decided to label as  _confusion._

Tony asked himself if he had seen those green eyes before, but when they looked away in the direction of the director calling his name and Tony sat down, he came to the conclusion that he had never seen him before. Maybe his own name reminded the guy to another person. Or, perhaps, he had realized who Tony was and the awesome opportunity he had just missed.

Tony felt pity for the guy, maybe he could give him another chance for the guy to have the privilege to talk or hang around with him, Tony was a good person after all.

The guy didn't look at him when he walked back to his seat, neither did he when he sat. The guy seemed really focused on his colorful paper. Tony wondered if they shared any class.

"Loki Friggason…" Tony murmured to himself.

"Welcomes to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ladies and gentlemen. From now on, you'll be working for the sake of the nation. You would make this country better in your respective areas. From now on, each one of you can proudly say you are students of M.I.T. and that, if you're here is because you're were selected as the best of your generation, you can confirm it seeing your admittance-tests' result. From now on…"

Tony supposed director Fury was some kind of ex-military based on the way he gave his speech. His attention flew away – _how uncommon -_  to the guy next to him. The same one who was avoiding any type of eye contact. Tony knew the guy was aware of his gaze upon him and had choose to just ignore it,  _as if it wasn't important having Tony Stark looking at him_. That hurt his ego once again, making his curiosity to increase.

"You can go now."

Coming back from the moon, Tony fell to the reality of the bell ringing. It was time to fill his coffee-need! When he got up, Tony saw that the guy,  _Loki,_  had disappeared. Tony didn't pay any attention to it and exited the room. Once outside, he was greeted with a huge amount of green areas and wind, a lot of wind. Tony walked around carelessly, asking himself if he place could be labeled as a city.

_Probably._

"Hey, Jarv," Tony took his  _Starkphone_  from his pocket and placed it on his ear, making it look like he was doing a call. He didn't want people to think that he was talking alone, it wasn't something they needed to know, anyway.

 _"_ _Sir?"_  Jarvis replied.

"Tell me about wormholes."

" _A wormhole is a tunnel which connects two points on the time-space, or two parallels universes. The tunnel is on the hyperspace, a dimension produces by a time distortion and gravity force—"_

"Has its existence been demonstrated?"

" _I fear it has not, sir."_

"So, there's no possibility that I have encountered with one this morning?"

" _I would dare to say no, sir. However, I would suggest for you to check the speedometer once in a while,"_ Jarvis suggested.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said nonchalantly. It was a misfortune not having had an encounter with a wormhole. How  _awesome_  would that have been? Oh, but, how cool would be being able to travel in time? Or from a dimension to another? And Parallel universes? Hell, the possibilities were limitless and Tony wished to be able to experience them all.

"Oh,  _god_. Is that a  _Starbucks?"_  Tony said, stopping mid-way, contemplating the well-known logo.

" _It seems like it, sir."_

"God bless Capitalism!" Tony threw his hands to the sky, exclaiming in an exaggerated way, walking to the place. It wasn't that surprising; there was a  _Starbucks_  in every corner, anyway. "This  _should_  be considered as a city."

Tony walked towards the building and waited for the barista to take his order. The reaction of the boy was immediate after hearing his name.  _That's how people should act when Tony was around._  At least now Tony was sure he still was on Earth, and no wormhole had threw him to a dimension where his name didn't make people lose their shit.  _Thank goodness._ Tony ordered a  _Dark Roast Grande_  and stood with his arms supported by the bar, wandering about wormholes, again. When he heard a voice calling his name, Tony knew his coffee was ready. He got it, took a sip, thanking all the good things in life for allowing him to fill his coffee-need.

Giving a quick glance around the place, Tony came across with a certain black-haired person he easily recognized, it was the same one who had been ignoring him moments ago on the auditorium and, being the human he was, Tony got closer, walking as if he owned the damn place and put his butt on the chair in front of Loki.

Loki didn't dare to look up neither when he heard the chair moving nor when he heard the creaking noise it made when the other person sat on it, hurting Tony's pride, once again.

_Who the hell did he think he was?_

If that guy thought ignoring Tony Stark was a great idea, he was really wrong. And Tony wouldn't accept it, so he spoke.

"You are Loki, right?"

The sentence gained a reaction from Loki, making him lift his head from the book which had had him very concentrated and gave Tony a confused glace. As if talking to him was the most unforgivable thing  _ever._

Before Tony could taste the triumph caused by having made a reaction, Loki hurried into closing the book with a hit –which had more strength than needed-, took it to his chest and raised his coffee cup with his other hand. Then, Loki stood up and started walking away rapidly from the place.  _Of course, with those legs it must be impossible to walk slowly._

"What the fuck was that?"

Saying that Tony was astonished wasn't enough. He could understand that the first time that guy had been too nervous to spoke to him, that was a pretty normal reaction, actually. _That's what you got when your last name was written in so many places_. But when he,  _himself,_  had been the one to approach him and Loki had ran away completely indignant because he had to share a small space with Tony as if Tony had some kind of viral sickness or as if he was the  _most unpleasant_ person in the world – _which was saying lie_ \- was something outrageous.

Really, who the hell did that Loki guy thought he was? Besides, Tony didn't even remember him. Maybe they didn't even know each other! And it wasn't like Tony was an expert in remembering faces, or names, or people in general, but if he didn't remember someone, that someone didn't have any right to act as if Tony had done something to them, 'cause if Tony didn't remember, they couldn't blame him for anything. End of the story.

" _Sir, I believe your next class is about to start."_ Tony was interrupted by the voice on his hand.

 _"_ _Sure. Guide me,_ Jarv." Tony said drinking the last sip of the coffee he didn't remember to have started drinking, in the first place.

oOo

"Good afternoon, ladies, gentlemen. They call me Phillip Coulson, you may call me  _Professor Coulson._  I will be accompanying you this semester and the ones that follows on Calculus. We have a lot to do, so let us start now."

Tony could have told the class was boring, but it would be saying too little. Why did he have to hear things he already knew? The only thing he wished for was to get off from the classroom and start playing on the labs and workshops. Life wasn't funny anymore since  _Howard_  had forbidden Tony to enter the workshop at  _hom-_ at the house, the main house. Luckily for him, the  _owner of Stark Industries_  didn't have a clue about Jarvis' existence. That could be problematic, at least. Anyway, Tony showed his best concentration mask while he acted as if he was taking notes.  _How bad would it be to making the teachers dislike you from the first day?_ Tony was pretty sure it was really bad, so he choose to not do it.

The rest of the classes were just the same and Tony found himself on his car begging to anyone for a mental challenge to interrupt his routine  _pronto_ , huh, and he  ** _really_**  wanted for him to be able to sneak through the labs. Tony could promise he wouldn't explode something, or at least he could try. Or promise he would try.

Before setting the car into motion, Tony saw from the distance a slim, tall person talking with a blond girl who was a least 7 inches smaller than him and snorted for himself.

"Let's talk about mental challenges."

Turning on the motor, Tony began leaving the parking lot behind, aware that he would have to come back tomorrow, and the next day and the day after and— no, after day it would be Saturday and Tony didn't have to go on Saturdays. Unless he wanted to try and go inside of some labs, but Tony was twelve percent sure it would only bring problems.

Tony drove without looking at the speedometer, much for Jarvis' distress. Wait. Was Jarvis able to feel distress? Or joy? Or anything? Well, that wasn't really important, was it? Whatever the feelings of Jarvis –or lack of- were, after a while Tony got to the house that wasn't actually hi house, but where he needed to live 'cause his house was on New York and, duh, it was just too far from M.I.T. House far meant having to wake up earlier and no, Tony didn't like the idea. And he wasn't in the mood of taking a goddamned plane every day. Tony parked the luxury vehicle and walked towards the front door.

"Jarvis, daddy is back."

Because it didn't matter if Jarvis was with Tony all day on his phone and car, it seemed necessary to greet him every time Tony went inside the house. He was the one who had taken charge into programming Jarvis on the entire place, giving him the capacity of control it all, just how he had wanted to do on the main house. It didn't feel so lonely that way.

" _It's great to see you again, sir."_

Tony walked directly to the fridge, took a soda and drank a sip while he made his way to the room where one of his laptops were, along with a pair or pens or, like he liked to called it,  _his office_. Tony took a seat on the comfy chair, leaving the can on the desk and turned on the computer.

"Jarv, search info about Loki Friggason."

" _Right away, sir."_

Seconds later, Tony's stereo began to sound with the music he loved that much. Tony leaned his back on the chair's backrest, looking at the ceiling thinking about how many time could Jarvis remain as a secret, until the British voice interrupted him:

" _Sir, I am afraid I would have to communicate you that I could not find any data about Loki Friggason."_

"What do you mean with that?"

" _What you just heard, sir. The only thing I have access to is his MIT enrollment archive and his current address."_

"Did you try to poke around on the national registry?" Tony asked, looking to a camera placed at his left.

" _Mrs. Potts forbid me of doing so after the last incident, sir."_

"Seems fair," Tony sighed, "Show me that file, anyway."

Tony stretched his body and stood up while the archive downloaded to his computer. Tony supported his hands on the desk, standing in front of the screen with his knees a little bit flexed and his back slightly arched. The monitor showed him Loki's register file and Tony spoke watching the photo, with an amused smile.

"Well, this is going to be interesting."


	2. It's gonna be fun

“I don’t think it’s _that_ difficult finding someone who hates you, Tony.” He sighed.

Tony was sure he could bet that the person on the other side of the phone was pinching the bridge of his nose and win.

“It’s really hard, actually,” answered Tony, picking up a pen and making it spin in his hand.

“Tony…”

Ah, how could Tony try to persuade him? Even on the phone was impossible, huh?

“Maybe is not that hard…” Tony admitted feeling defeated, looking at the ceiling and letting the pen on the table.

“See?”

“But it’s different.” Tony said convinced.

“Ah…” He sighed again, “How so?”

“When someone hates me –believe me, I have a lot of experience- usually tells me, you know? Or at least has an apparent reason to do it so.”

“Are you saying that this guy…?” He made the last syllable longer.

“Loki.” Tony said firmly, straighten himself on the chair.

“ _Loki”_ He repeated, “That this Loki guy hates you?”

“Exactly,” Tony said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Tell me, have you ever talked with him?”

“Uhm… No.” Tony answered looking away, as if he was watching him.

Bruce sighed. Again.

Tony knew Bruce was with his glasses in a hand and the phone in the other, trying with all his strength to not end the call at that moment. But that wasn’t stopping Tony, also, if Bruce ended the call, Tony would call again. And Bruce also knew it, so even try to end the call seemed worthless.

“You don’t understand! This guy looks at me like I had some fucking disease! And he ignores me! He _ignores me_ , Bruce!” Tony said standing up dramatically, walking away from the desk where he was before.

“Maybe he doesn’t even know you?” Bruce suggested sitting on a more comfortable sofa, he supposed the conversation wouldn’t end soon.

“How wouldn’t he!?”

As if what Tony needed at that moment was a hit directed to his ego. No, thank you very much. Completely unnecessary.

“Perhaps he is a foreign? You can’t deny he has a weird name.” Bruce tried suggesting.

“I hadn’t thought about it…” Tony started walking aimlessly around the house.

“Do you see?” Bruce looked up.

A little ray of hope grew inside Bruce, who wished for the conversation to be over there, and tried to hold tightly onto the opportunity of being able to finish his work.

“But it doesn’t make sense.” Tony said looking through the window.

Ah, hoping a short conversation was too much. It would be lying if Bruce said he didn’t know it. He haven’t met a single person who was more stubborn than Tony.

“What doesn’t?”

Bruce closed his eyes.

“When he heard my name, hey, don’t snort, I’m listening you.” Tony complained before continuing, “When he heard my name he made that weird face and didn’t look back at me again, you know? Can you believe that someone did that? Then I found him on the cafeteria, I approached him, talked to him and he _left._ He didn’t even answer me! Can you believe it?”

“So, your biggest problem is a guy who ignores you?”

Tony could see Bruce raising an eyebrow.

“Well…” Tony keep silence, noticing he couldn’t deny or affirm it. He didn’t even know why he was giving it so much importance, it could be due to his hurt pride. Yeah, it was for his hurt pride.

“Tony…”

Tony was able to add another sigh to the collection he was creating while the conversation grew.

“What?” Tony asked with an innocent voice.

“You have an endless amount of people who, sadly, would be willing to kiss your feet and you focus on a guy who, according to you, hates you and ignores you shamelessly?” Bruce said with a higher voice tone. “You are such a case.” Bruce covered his eyes with his right hand.

“Are you saying that I’m being ridiculous?” Tony stopped his walking.

“I’m saying that you’re exaggerating _and being ridiculous.”_

“And what do you want me to do, huh?”

Tony was demanding an answer and Bruce asked himself if he should’ve studied phycology or psychiatry, for that matter. Maybe his life would’ve been easier that way.

“I don’t know,” Bruce said, taking time before speak again. “Perhaps… Perhaps you should try to ask him.”

“Have you even been listening to me?” Tony said raising his voice, looking towards the ceiling.

Bruce saw his mistake.

“I’m sorry, Tony. My interpersonal relationship skills are not the… _finest_ , that’s why I spend my days locked up on a lab, and you know it.”

Tony snorted. But he couldn’t blame Bruce, deep down he knew that he had to fix this issue by himself, wait, _“fix”?_ “Fix” sounded as if he had done something really bad to Loki, when in fact, he couldn't remember if he had ever have met him, not even once in his life. Anyway, why being hated by a guy he had never met before was so important? It didn’t seem that significant but, who the hell did Loki thought he was to ignore Tony as if he wasn’t damned important and known?

“It’s okay, at least I could talk to someone” Tony commented looking at the floor.

“At least you were able to complain with someone.” Bruce offered with a smile.

“It’s the same.” Tony could heard when Bruce smiled, and he did it too.

“But, seriously, maybe you’re just misunderstanding stuff. And I’m really sorry, I don’t know how to help you and I have to go.”

“Okay, thank you anyway, Brucie.”

“Please, stop with the ‘Brucie’ already”

“Yeah… That ain’t gonna happen.”

The mental image of Bruce rolling his eyes in an exaggerated way stood in Tony’s mind even after his friend had ended the call.

Tony softly tossed the phone to the sofa –he has arrived to the living room on his walk- and threw himself on it, making the leather resonate in response to his weight.

“Dum-E, give me a scotch glass,” Tony said making himself comfortable before turning on the television.

The robot, which had been created years ago on his _father_ ’s workshop, moved to the bar placed on Tony’s living room and took a bottle of scotch, trying to accomplish the task that had been given to. Tony jumped on his seat when he heard the crashing sound the bottle made when it collided with the floor, crumbling. A stench of alcohol started to fill the place and Tony cursed loudly while he stood up.

“You’re every time closer to be donated to a public university, do you know that? You are a mess!”

Dum-E retracted his claw and put in down, as if showing regret. Tony sighed.

“Go and get the mop, move.”

After cleaning the hundred-or-so pieces of glass scattered over the floor, drying the wasted alcohol and putting a paper cone with the word ‘Dunce’ on Dum-E, Tony found himself resting comfortably on his leather sofa with a scotch glass poured from a just opened bottle in his hand, searching for something interesting to watch on tv, what was the point in having so many channels if there wasn’t anything interesting on them?

Two weeks had happened since Tony had started his classes and he had learn two things:

One. Not being able to enter to the labs sucked.

Two. He didn’t shared any class with Loki and that made everything more boring.

Talking about the devil, Tony had tried to approach him because of simple and mere curiosity, with the intention of asking him what the hell Tony had done to him and why the fuck he ran away every time he saw Tony, but Loki just did that: _run away._ Ah, and shoot him ugly and full of hatred glances, the ugly and full of hatred glances couldn’t be forgotten.

Tony had even tried to corner him – _God, corner sounded so wrong-_ on a place where Loki couldn’t fled away, but the guy was like a goddamned cat and he was able to leave with an impressive cunning before Tony could be able to even try to talk to him. A magic cat, yes, like those the witches had, a black cat with green eyes, _-Ha! Just like a witches’ one!-_ that was able to drag you into the depths of hell itself with just a movement of his ears.

“Jarv, do you have any data of Loki on your hardware?” Tony asked while he supported his head on the back of the sofa, looking at the ceiling.

“ _It surprises me that you have waited so long before asking me. However, I am afraid I have to tell you no, I do not have any, sir.”_

Tony snorted, ignoring the fact that Jarvis had called him _slow._

“When was the first time I programmed you?” Tony inquired after turning off the television.

“ _About three years ago, sir.”_

“You have a registry of all the people I have met, right?” Tony looked the ice floating on his scotch.

“ _I would say so, sir.”_

 _“_ So, why would a guy I met before fifteen hate me?” Tony drank a sip from his glass.

“ _I do not know, sir.”_

“Of course you don’t, how could you know something that I don’t?” Tony commented, giving a smile to one of the cameras.

“ _What is your security number like, sir?”_

“Touché,” Tony pointed with a finger at one of the cameras. “I may reprogram you, your sass levels are over the acceptable.”

“ _Are you angry because the student surpassed the master, sir?”_

“Shut up and order something to eat.”

Tony turned on the television, again.

“ _As you wish, sir.”_

Wonderful stuff happened when your name was Tony Stark, like that in less than a half an hour your dining table could be full with delicious and ready for eat food, it didn’t matter if it was Sunday after the closing hour of most of places. Tony took a slice of pizza from a box in front of him and marveled himself with the extra cheese while he opened a cold beer, -it had been carried by himself, he didn’t want a scrambled one, thank you very much- and he laughed with a Japanese contest show.

“I hope to not interrupt you, Mister Stark.”

“Oh! Hey, Pepp!” Tony replied while a melted cheese thread hung from his chin, Tony cleaned it quickly with a napkin and drank a sip from his can. “Are you hungry?”

“No, I’m not.” Pepper answered sitting on the chair in front of Tony.

“And what brings you around here? Jarvis, why didn’t you tell me that Pepper was coming over?” Tony looked straight to a camera.

“ _I did it so, sir. You just didn’t want to hear.”_

“Uhm… I’m sorry?”

“Isn’t it a little bit early to be drinking?” Pepper questioned, scowling at the can resting on the table.

“Early? It’s the perfect time somewhere in the world!”

“Tony, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.” Tony took another sip.

“How long has passed since you started your classes?” She narrowed her eyes.

“A year?”

“Hardly,” Pepper replied seriously. “Two weeks.”

“It feels the same.” Tony bit another slice of pizza.

“Tony.”

He swallowed. Tony didn’t like the direction where the conversation was heading. Why he hadn’t listened to Jarvis? He would’ve had time to flee. Or to hide. Or to fake his death.

“Pepp.” Tony replied with the same seriousness.

“Do you know how many days have you arrived late?” Pepper looked at him accusingly.

“Three?”

“Five. In fact, the first day you got late, too. That makes six, of eight.”

Pepper supported her right elbow on the table and rested her head on her palm.

“Thanks for throwing me to the train tracks, Jarvis.” Tony said looking at a camera on his left.

“ _I was just trying to help, sir.”_

“Tony, you moved to this place in order for you to not have to wake up that early, so that you wouldn’t have to get late, remember? Well, that’s exactly what you haven’t been doing.”

“I haven’t got _that_ late, uh.” Tony tried.

“You know that’s not true.” She looked at him.

“C’mon, Pepper, things are not going to magically change if I start getting earlier to classes, besides, you know something? I get bored going there, the classes don’t stimulate me, there’re stuff I already know. Should I recall that I made a robot? Useless and bothersome, yes, but _I_ made it. Oh! And what about Jarvis? You know I designed him, right? I want to sneak on the labs and workshops, to be able to do experiments and to invent more things. The only reason I’m going it’s because _Howard Stark_ wants a piece of cardboard to show off and delight himself in front of this colleagues about how smart is his _son_ , -Tony pronounced that word with disdain- although he doesn’t let me enter to his workshop, nor he had called to know how I’m doing and he just recognize me a his fucking _son_ to get away with the press. How do you want me to get up every morning and go to a place that doesn’t attract my attention with people that doesn’t make me feel anything?”

“Maybe because it’s your duty as the future owner of the company?”

“Pepp, I’m already an adult. Why can’t you treat me like one?”

“Do you really want me to treat you as an adult?” Pepper stared at his eyes.

“Yes.” Tony replied, staring at hers.

“Then act like one. How can you say that you’re an adult, a responsible one, when you can’t even arrive on time to your classes?”

“You sound like a teacher scolding a problematic student.” Tony grumbled.

“You _are_ acting like a problematic student.”

After hearing that, Tony groaned grumpily and rolled his eyes. Was it too late to try running away? What about feigning that he was choking with a piece of pizza? Maybe he would’ve luck.

“Look, I know you don’t want to go—“

“I want to go into a fucking lab!” Tony complained, like _an_ _adult._

Pepper sighed, wondering how long it would be until she was able to take a well-deserved vacation.

“I know, _problem student._ But you need to act as an adult, seeing that you are _one_ and wait until is possible to you to accede one. Now, I was thinking that maybe you could move into a place nearer to MIT.”

“And leave home, sweet home?”

“Then get earlier to class.” Pepper warned him, “Tony, you do it once again and I’ll start to look for another place. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tony winked. Pepper looked away. “I’ll try.”

“You better.”

There was a short silence where Tony asked himself what had he done to deserve that kind of treatment, _no, being late 80% of days didn’t count;_ Pepper wondered why she couldn’t be on a five stars spa at that moment.

“That would be all, Mr. Stark.” Pepper said regaining her composure.

“Thank you, Mrs. Potts.” Tony replied watching Pepper while she stood up and walked to the exit.

* * *

 

Tony knew Pepper’s warning couldn’t be taken lightly, so he proposed to himself waking up at a prudent and reasonable time on Monday.

Effectively, Tony got to the building five minutes earlier than the teacher and he even had time to make an insignificant conversation with the person seated at his side. _‘Victor’ was his name?,_ and Tony had made sure to have a notebook and a pencil on his desk. Who was a responsible adult now, huh? Ignoring the fact that Tony started to make meaningless scribbles in the paper, he was one.

Nevertheless, although all his _great_ effort, the result was the same of the past classes: Tony put on his best concentration mask while his mind traveled for different places and scenarios. Well, at least he was able to answer when the teacher asked him something, but that only made him reconsider his hypothesis about not needing to be there; maybe he should’ve entered a few years ago, that way he would’ve joined with no major knowledge and could be truly interested on the classes, because if there was something Tony craved and wanted was that: knowledge. To know more every time, making a lot of questions and, while the answers came, more questions added up. Wasn’t that what philosophers said? What if Tony signed up to Philosophy courses? Nah, he liked substantial answers.

When Tony realized he was completely disconnected from the class it was too late, and it was over. Tony cursed his incapability of being concentrated on stuff that were uninteresting for him, it was something that happened to everybody, right? But he wasn’t ‘ _everybody’_ and feeling like it was really bothering him.

“Jarv, what do we have now?” Tony asked, walking aimlessly through the campus, watching people enjoying the green grass.

“ _Your next class is Calculus with Professor Coulson, sir.”_

“Uhm…” Tony murmured while he watched the time, there was still a few minutes before the class started, he could have a delicious coffee before it, right?

Walking quickly -hell, he was almost running- to the classroom Tony reproached himself for thinking the time would be enough. He was fifteen minutes late and he knew Coulson would want to speak with him, Tony had never showed that much interest on his classes. _Nothing personal, mind you._

When he opened the door and interrupted Coulson’s explication about Integrals –How fun!-, Tony had every eye on him, -not that it bothered him, anyway- Coulson looked at him with surprise on his features, Tony was right to think that Coulson had assumed he wouldn’t come to that class.

“Oh, Mr. Stark, it’s an honor to know that you have come down to join us.”

“I’m sorry, I had a coffee problem.” Tony excused himself, looking for a seat.

“Would you mind coming to my desk?”

Well, maybe not everything went the way you wanted.

“Sure.”

Tony was pleasant surprised when he found out that Coulson had a few sheets with very long exercises on his desk, _I supposed you already knew how to do them_ , Coulson had said after Tony had picked them up. Tony thanked him and went to an unoccupied seat, which was in the back row, thankfully. He kept himself busy the rest of the class, solving the exercises with a lot of concentration, without feeling the gazes directed to him; Tony was really satisfied with that system.

At the end of the class Tony was about finishing an exercise, so he stayed on his seat until he found out the answer. When he looked up, Tony noticed he was the only student who was still in the classroom. Tony stood up and gave Coulson the sheets with annotations and calculations filling them; he stared at them before saying:

“Impressive.”

“I liked them,” Tony said smiling, “From what book are them?” He asked curiously, he was more than willing to make more stuff like that.

“I wrote them.” Coulson smiled at the compliment.

Tony decided to never underestimate Coulson again.

It was a wise decision.

Going out from the classroom, with the agreement of keeping that method of exercises, Tony felt how his stomach growled and he made the decision of going to the cafeteria to buy his lunch, he didn’t feel like going out. Maybe he could relax resting on the grass, talking with the voice on his telephone, searching information about certain teacher, after that.

With a hamburger on his tray, Tony was looking for a table to sit on, like a normal student. He saw one relatively empty, there was just a student on it who had forgotten his lunch on the tray and was focused reading a book.

He remembered what Bruce had said to him, not the strikes to his ego but his _maybe you should ask him_ , so he swiftly walked closer and, as he was tired of trying to achieve something in a subtle way, Tony hit his tray onto the table, making a loud enough clang that made Loki get out of his reader trance, who looked astonished at Tony and, before he could even make a sound, Tony spoke.

“Speak, what did I do to you?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Loki’s confusion was really clear on his features, Tony thought that maybe Loki hadn’t heard him or hadn’t understand the question so he asked again, keeping the visual contact.

“What the fuck did I do? Why do you hate me?”

There was a moment when the only thing that could be heard was the background noises, Tony wanted to suppose that Loki was thinking on a coherent answer.

“I am sorry, can you tell me _who are you?”_

_What?_

Of all the answers Tony could’ve imagine, that was one he hadn’t thought of. He was _dumbfounded_. How could anyone ask him who he was? How could be a person around there who didn’t know about his existence?

 “Uhmm… Tony Stark?” Tony said confused. Loki’s eyebrows knitted together. “Have you been all your life living on an igloo?”

“What?”

“It’s the only option I can think of, you don’t look like a desert person.” Tony said referring to Loki’s pale skin.

“I am really sorry, I know not what you are talking about.”

Tony was about to talk, but was interrupted by a vibration he correctly related to a phone, then he heard an ‘ _excuse me’_ from Loki and the conversation was over.

“Hello? Oh, Sigyn!” His face lit up as if by magic. “How are you, darling?”

Loki stood up, placed his book on his backpack, lifted the tray and walked towards the exit with an agile pace, talking animated.

At least he had made an interaction, which could be considered as a triumph if it wasn’t because Loki had told him he didn’t know who he was and he has left him alone, _again_!!

His poor hurt ego and he withdrawn feeling defeated without even finishing his hamburger and Tony walked outside; it was an excellent moment to lounge in the grass and talk with his phone. Yes, it was perfect. Even if it sounded weird. He leaned back in the grass, searching meaningless thing on internet until a voice drawn him out of his thoughts.

“Things have been a little bit difficult.”

Tony turned where the voice came from and he recognized the person who was talking on the phone in the bench that had been empty moment ago, God, how much time have he been talking on the phone?

“Leave? No, it does not sound like a great idea.”

And where was he supposed to go? Not that Tony cared.

Tony thought of going out of the place in order to give Loki privacy and let him talk peacefully, but for that Tony would’ve to stand up, which probably would attract Loki’s attention and he would end up thinking that Tony was spying on him or something like that, also, he had come there first, why should he leave? And it wasn’t as if he was really paying attention to the conversation Loki was having. He wasn’t any type of stalker, mind you.

“It just… I miss you so bad.”

No, of course Tony wasn’t eavesdropping. With who was Loki talking, anyway? With the same girl? Well, Loki has said he missed her, so maybe she was his girlfriend, but how could he know if he wasn’t listening?

“I wish you had been able to stay here.”

Yup, it sounded like a girlfriend, or it _would_ sound like a girlfriend if Tony was listening to the conversation.

“Yes, I think I would have to find someone.”

_Find someone?_

“Although, I would have preferred not having to do it so.”

_So, why was he going to do it?_

“I already told you, Sigyn, I do not want to leave, and you shall know the reason.”

Loki turned for a moment and if Tony hadn’t be quickly enough to return to his laying position on the grass, he was sure Loki would’ve see him. Who will believe him if Tony said he wasn’t stalking Loki? Of course it wasn’t the situation, Tony definitely wasn’t stalking, and he wasn’t even listening the conversation that Loki was having with _Sigyn._ He was calmly laying on the green grass, looking at the flowers.

“Jarvis, can you give me information about this beauty?” Tony whispered with a flower in his hand and took a photo.

“ _Of course, sir. What you have on your hand is the Campanula rotundifolia, which is commonly seen in different places around the United States due to its easy maintenance and—“_

 _“_ You know what? Don’t. You don’t let me hear.”

“ _As you wish, sir.”_

If Jarvis had the capacity of sigh, he would have done it and if he also had a body, he would probably have rolled his eyes.

Tony got himself into a sitting position, focusing on the silent Loki, who was once again looking to the contrary direction, having Tony staring at his back.

“I know, I know,” Loki replied to the voice on the phone. “I will have to try,” Loki sighed, “Please have a pleasing afternoon, darling.”

At the sight of Loki lowering the arm that had been holding the phone onto his ear, Tony supposed that the call was finished. Loki looked to the floor, or it seemed like it, because Tony wasn’t able to see his face and mumbled something that Tony didn’t accomplish to hear. Loki stood up and started walking away from the place, leaving a confused and curious guy behind.

* * *

Tony was lying on this bed staring at his phone screen. There was a picture of a paper signboard that had caught his attention. At first he had thought of taking it, but then he realized it was better to take a photo from it.

“Seeking for a quiet roommate for the purpose of sharing a comfortable and spacious department. It has two bedrooms and a bathroom. The living room and the dining room are quite large. It has, also, a balcony. If there could be any doubt, please be sure to talk at the phone number…” Tony read out loud, “Jarvis, don’t you think it’s time for a move?”

“ _I do not consider it as a good idea, sir.”_

“C’mon,” Tony replied with a wide smile, “It’s gonna be fun.”


	3. No place like...

Loki wanted to throw himself from a bridge.

Of course he would take it as personal! How Loki could not foresee these consequences?

The expression he made at meeting someone who did know not his name had been more than remarkable and Loki would remember it for an eternity as a triumph, indeed. Although he was questioning his sanity now. Had it been really worth the pain? How could it had been worth if it bought this as the aftermath?

It was obvious that the most arrogant being in the world would like every single person knowing his name and what it meant! How Loki did not think about the possibility of him tracking Loki down until he knew even his blood-type? Everything would have been easier had he kept ignoring him or going away when he tried to come near! But no, Loki  _had_  to make use of his  _brilliant_ brain to reply and throw himself to the Lion's fangs. Furthermore,  _fleeing_  could be misunderstood by fear and there was no way where Loki could be afraid of him. Loki just did not want to see his face ever again on lifetime, had it been possible. And at this moment, not only Loki had to see his face, he was standing right there on Loki's kitchen table. Such a torture!

"I beg your pardon?" Loki asked astonished, yet he was showing a blank mask, hoping for it all to be a joke, a really bad-taste one, by the by. And he was to be believed, as he knew about jokes.

"I saw your ad," he repeated.

"My advertisement? And what about that?"

Tony wondered if Loki maybe couldn't understand English.

"That, uhm… according to your ad, you're searching for a roommate, aren't you? Well, I'm exactly who you were searching for!" He smiled.

Loki questioned himself what kind of horrors had he made to the gods to deserve such punishment.

"I am more than sure that  _you_  do not need a place to live," Loki hurried to say.

"How could you know?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I am sure." Loki replied firmly.

Loki was desperately searching for a valid and coherent reason to assert that it was a cruel and despicable joke in order to offend him. Notwithstanding, Loki still was on his right to refuse, why would he accept?

"Well, you're wrong," Tony answered, staring at him.

"Why shall I accept?" Loki asked without even blinking, doing it would be admitting defeat.

Tony started to doubt, this guy truly didn't know him? He looked more than willing to throw Tony to the street. Tony could see the hate reflected on his glace and the surprised expression Loki had when he found Tony at his door hadn't gone unnoticeable, mind you; and it had stayed there until they had sat on the kitchen table. Maybe now Loki was showing a blank and unexpressive face, but Tony knew how to identify when he wasn't wanted around.

"I don't see any other person wanting to live here," Tony replied crossing his arms.

Loki knew he was right. Even though it was, maybe, just a matter of time until someone saw his advertisement and got interested. However, Loki also knew that, with the classes already started, many people were comfortably living on a convenient place for them and the probability of someone knocking at his door was utterly insignificant, even when the department was flawless. Moreover, Loki was almost on the limit date to the rent and it was completely impossible for him to pay it with only his own money. Why Sigyn had to leave so suddenly?

"So…?" Tony asked.

Would it be really necessary to make a deal with the devil?

Loki sighed, accepting the fact of not having any other option, it did not matter how much Loki thought about it, the truth was simple.

"Fine," Loki said knowing that for him it was not. But if life was out to get him, Loki would certainly survive.

It was in that moment when Tony had to hide the winning smile that was treating to go out from the corners of his lips. He kept it inside himself 'til he went to the door of the one that was gonna be his new place to live. Once he was outside, Tony smiled in a way that if other people had saw him, they would thought he had gone crazy.

And maybe it had been like that.

* * *

"He has a British accent," Tony commented playing with a screwdriver in his hands.

"Who does?" Bruce asked absently, without looking at him.

"Loki."

Bruce looked up from his notebook, forgetting the equations he was trying to resolve.

"Are we going back to the same topic?"

"I just wanted to comment it."

"Uh, okay," Bruce said confused. He was about to return to his equations when Tony spoke again.

"He said he didn't know who I was," Tony said with droning voice.

Bruce should have known from the moment when Tony had mentioned that guy's name that he wouldn't shut up about it. Hoping to be able to go back to finish his damned equations was too much.

"Hm, really?" Bruce asked looking at the numbers written on the paper.

"Yeah,"

"Oh,"

Tony was getting annoyed by Bruce's lack of interest at replying him, didn't he notice how important was the whole matter?

"Can you believe he said that?"

"Terrible," Bruce whispered. Tony looked at him perplexed, the screwdriver completely forgotten on the table. "What? Tony, seriously. There's a lot of people who faints when you come around and your biggest problems is a guy who doesn't care about you, why do you give it so much relevance?"

"But… uhm…"

Tony let out a sigh.

"Look," Bruce continued, "I know it's something new for you meeting a person who doesn't want to take you to their bed when they see you or something like that, but you are failing to recall that there's people beyond that. Tell me, do you know how many people around there don't have a clue about Steve Jobs' children?"

"You can be comparing Stark Industries with Apple,"

"Maybe Loki has an iPhone," Bruce suggested, "There's people who prefer them."

"I know," Tony snorted. At least he had Bruce to keep Tony's feet on the Earth, or not that far away from it.

"I'm glad," Bruce returned to his notebook, wondering if maybe he had wrote the equation wrong, it couldn't be that difficult.

Tony stood up from the worktable and walked towards the mini-fridge places on Bruce's workshop. He took a soda and started to stroll quietly around the place. Truth to be told, it was a lot smaller than his, well, Howard's one. But since Howard had forbid him to enter because Tony ruffled stuff up and made use of the materials Howard needed to other issues -which didn't make any sense, because Howard perfectly could've bought them again. Hell! He had the money to buy the damned reserves! Besides, when Tony started buying his own materials to work with, Howard was still banning him to go inside. Tony had been lucky when Howard went away for like a month and he had been able to put hands to work with the already designed planes to create Dum-E. Later, Tony realized that he should've put more time into the software design- Well, after being denied to wander around, Tony had started to hang out in Bruce's house, searching for a way to let all that frustration out. And it wasn't as if Tony's company bothered Bruce, in fact, Bruce really enjoyed sharing time with him, there was a reason why they were friends since high school freshman year and they usually spent a lot of time together, doing homework, projects or just playing with science. Tony liked to call themselves as  _ScienceBros_ which gave mixed-feelings to Bruce but he accepted, anyway. It seemed that Tony liked to make up nicknames, and who was Bruce to deny a little bit of happiness to his friend? In reality, one of the persons who knew Tony better was Bruce, and everyone around them was aware of it. That's why when Tony had mentioned Loki some doubts had grew on Bruce and now that Tony was wandering around the workshop watching everything he already knew, Bruce was sure that  _something_  was up.

"Tony, why are you so obsessed with a guy you just met and who doesn't care about you?" Bruce asked staring at him from the desk Bruce was on, equations totally disregarded.

"Hadn't we dropped the topic?" Tony asked turning to look at him.

"It's painfully obvious how much the matter bothers you. You still don't try to disassemble something," Bruce commented and took off his glasses, putting them on the table.

"It's more than that, Bruce," Tony drank a sip of soda before continue, "I feel as if we met before. Not that I remember it, but it seemed like he knew me,"

"You asked him, right?" Tony nodded. It wasn't enough to get to a conclusion, "What did you ask him, exactly?"

"I subtly asked him if he could tell me why he addressed me with contempt." Tony said with an innocent tone.

Bruce knew Tony enough to be sure things weren't like that. He sighed, why Tony couldn't be more carefully when he spoke to someone?

"Sure," With an elbow on the table, Bruce laid his cheek on his right palm, raising his eyebrows, "So, you approached him and  _demanded_ for him to tell you why he  _hated_  you,"

Tony smiled, pointing Bruce with his right hand's index finger, confirming Bruce's suspicions. Bruce supported his forehead on his palm.

"And he told you he didn't know you," Bruce commented without moving.

"Exactly," Tony affirmed, sitting in front of Bruce. "But he could be lying."

"Why would he lie?" Bruce asked, lifting his head to look at Tony.

"I don't know," Tony shrugged, "It doesn't matter, anyway,"

Tony was trying to keep the playful smile that was waiting to come. Bruce noticed it and, knowing it was a kind of bait for him to get interested, he bit it.

"Why it doesn't matter?" Bruce asked, hoping that the answer didn't mean a lot of problems for Tony.

"I'm… uh, kinda living with him. Scratch that, I _'ll_ be living with him," Tony said before taking another sip.

"You… what!?" Bruce said with eyes wide open. He totally wasn't expecting that.

"Well… he was searching for a roommate to cope with the expenses of his department, how could  _I_  leave alone someone who needed my help?" Tony asked with a sweet voice tone, "Besides, Pepper told me it would be better if I moved to a placer nearer to M.I.T and casually, the department is closer,"

"And now you're a philanthropist or what?" Bruce asked, covering his face with both of his hands.

"I have always been a good person," Tony smiled innocently.

Bruce looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Tony knew Bruce didn't buy that excuse. Who would?

"The truth is that I wanna, uh," Tony made a pause, "find out stuff. For science,"

"You find someone who dislike you and your first thought is to go living with him? Are you serious!?" Bruce pitched the bridge of his nose.

"Uh… yeah?" Tony replied staring at him.

"You're so stubborn. Why am I your friend?" Bruce asked shaking his head.

"Because I'm awesome?" Tony offered a smirk to Bruce.

Bruce smiled at him, taking pity on his poor soul.

"This is going to explode on your face sooner or later. You know that, right?"

"Nah," Tony casually said, "I'm gonna have it under control,"

"Just be careful of what you do, Tony," Bruce made a frown of worry.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said moving his left hand trying to downplay the issue. He looked focused at Bruce's notebook before tell him: "That one doesn't have solution."

"I knew it!" Bruce said giving a look to the paper, "Do you think I wrote it wrong?" He asked before taking his glasses, "Maybe I should change them."

"They could have make it without a solution in purpose, so the person trying to solve it would have to erase it thousand times thinking they were doing something wrong. You're lucky having me," Tony rested his back on the chair.

"Woah, Tony. Careful there, your ego and you don't fit on the same chair," Bruce told him before throwing him a paper ball.

"Hey!" Tony complained when the paper hit him.

"Smug." Bruce said childishly.

Tony pulled a paper sheet from a notebook resting on the table, made a ball from it and threw it to Bruce, who imitated the action, starting a paper ball war which would end the life of two poor notebooks that didn't have another option more than succumb.

Tony found himself thanking that Bruce stayed with him the way he did, even if Bruce didn't know what to say, he listened Tony thoughtfully and knew when Tony needed to stay alone by himself. Even when Bruce said that the way he dealt with people wasn't the most suitable, the truth was that Bruce did know what to do when it was about Tony, or he knew most of the time. And Tony was really thankful about that, that's why every time the opportunity was there Tony bought Bruce something he needed or liked, and Bruce felt a little uncomfortable accepting gifts with no apparent reason, but he knew Tony did it with the best of intentions and Bruce ended up feeling flattered.

What was life without friends around you?

* * *

Loki was seated on the kitchen table, waiting impatiently for his computer to turn on. When it finally did, he logged in and made sure that everything was correct before seeing the person on the other side of the screen and smile warmly. That light blue sweeter made her look great.

"Hey, you," She greeted with a bright smile.

"Hello, Sigyn," Loki replied widening his own smile, "How are you?"

"I'm still trying to get used to the time change. Do you see this?" She asked pointing to her lower eyelids, where faint dark circles were starting to take control, "I'm not being able to sleep properly,"

"It is not that bad, although sleeping un-well sucks," Loki suggested.

"How are things around there?" Sigyn asked tying her hair into a ponytail.

"I…" Loki paused for a moment, "I found a new roommate," He said with a calm and unexpressive tone, looking at the keyboard.

"And how is this person? Is a boy or a girl?" Sigyn asked sweetly, noticing Loki's mood change, but she decided to not comment on it.

"It's a boy," Loki replied playing with his hair, which reached his shoulders.

"Something interesting about him?" She asked getting closer to the camera, expecting.

"Is…  _Stark_ ," Loki replied looking up, meeting Sigyn's eyes. He was able to see a little bit of confusion growing on them.

"' _Stark'?"_  Sigyn blinked a couple of times, "As in, uh,  _Tony Stark?_ " Her brows knitted together. Loki slowly nodded. "How is that you are fine with that?" She questioned puzzled.

"I did not have any other option, Sigyn," Loki let out an exasperated sigh, "Even when it has not been a long time since I published the advertisement, I have not got any call. Furthermore, I am having a bit of problems with the money; this month is payed, mostly because you helped me before leaving. However, I would not be able to pay next month's rent. And now I will have to deal with this."

"You know I can help you with the money," Sigyn suggested with a frown.

"No. It would not be proper for you to do it if you are  _not_  living here. Moreover, I fail to see the convenient of you financially helping me, because of your situation,"

"I don't want you to feel…" Sigyn did a pause, searching for a word to use, "uncomfortable,"

"I can deal with this, Sigyn. For I am not a toddler," He smiled without joy, "It just… I know you had to go because your grandmother became ill and there is no one else who can provide her the attention and time you can give her, I know how close you were to her when you were a child and I know, I am saying something terribly egoistic," Loki looked away for a moment before looking straight to Sigyn's eyes and calmly say: "but you know not how much I wish you could still be by my side,"

"I know," Sigyn looked sadly to the camera, making Loki feel a little bit guilty, "You don't know how much this situation pains me. But you are not  _alone_ , Loki," She smiled faintly, "You should use this opportunity to meet more people, don't you think so?

"I do not need people, I have you," Loki narrowed his eyes, without understanding why Sigyn was asking him such  _madness._

"I'm not always going to be around you, Loki," She said with sadness on her eyes, "Right now I'm not  _really_  at your side and it hurts. But you must not be  _alone._

 _"_ Sigyn…" Loki pronounced her name with some pain, he knew exactly what Sigyn was talking about and he did not want to think about it.

"Please, Loki," Sigyn stared at him, "You  _must_  not go back to being alone. I don't wish to see you _that way_  again," She sighed, "Promise me you will carry on,"

"I… I will try"

"It's an advance," Sigyn smiled, "And this guy… do you know when he arrives?"

"Today," Loki replied dryly, "He arrives today. I will give you your room, well  _ex-_ room," Loki hurried to say before Sigyn could speak, "I thought of giving he mine in order to keep intact yours, but… I do apologize, I could not,"

"Don't you worry about that," She smiled warmly, "Any decision you make for the department is fine to me. I know how much you care. Besides, you are the one living there,"

"I know, I know," Loki took a deep breath before speak again, "And your grandmother… how is she?"

"Today she spoke more than yesterday," Sigyn replied smiling, but the joy didn't reach her eyes, "Although… the doctors say that it would be necessary to increase the medicine,"

Hearing Sigyn talk with sadness on her features and voice broke Loki's heart. Sigyn was the most important person on Loki's world, they had been friends for five years, she knew him better than any other person Loki could have share something and Sigyn had helped him when he had needed it the most. Even now, when she had to leave to Norway, her native country, she give the best of herself to turn on her computer and keep on line when Loki was able too, even if they had a six hours gap –Loki had been able to see the sun disappear in Sigyn's window, while it shined on his- and she used to know what to say, or when was the proper moment to stay in silence. Given the fact that Loki didn't speak with his  _parents_  or  _brothers_  since he had move, Sigyn help helped him to stay sane.

Both of them had decided to move on together few years ago, and they had put hands to work since a couple of months ago; they were living peacefully their lives until a call changed everything. Loki could remember with clarity how Sigyn's face replaced happiness with sadness, how the tears wanted to slide down her cheeks with the conviction of her having to go. Remembering it left a bitter feeling, it made Loki feel guilty for wanting for Sigyn to stay despite the reason because she had to leave him alone. And saying it made Sigyn feel guilty about having to go and letting Loki on his own, so mentioning the issue did not have sense, it just made both of them feel deeply sorry about the whole situation that destiny had placed them on.

They kept talking cheerfully, this time about casual and daily topics for the simple fact that it was a lot more enjoyable than spending time alone on their respective rooms, since Sigyn didn't know anyone from the town she was currently living on and Loki was not really eager to leave the department. Until their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Loki said goodbye to Sigyn, the promise of talking at the next day was implicit and both of them knew they will fulfill it. Loki walked towards the door and sighed before opening it, hiding any emotion on an empty mask.

"Hey," Tony greeted casually, going inside with a box in his hands.

"I thought you would come later," Loki answered, without moving from the spot he was on.

"What are you sayin'? It's six, isn't it?" Tony walked to the living room.

Loki suppressed a smile, time flew away when he was talking with Sigyn. Of course she looked so tired and sleepy, it was already midnight for her and, despite that, she had been more than willing to keep talking with Loki.

"So, where can I drop my stuff?" Tony asked, turning his back to face Loki, asking himself how stupid had he been to accept without seeing the department with detail.

"This way," Loki went before Tony and walked straight, passing for the dining room, getting to a corridor that had a little table with a vase on top of it and he stopped in front of two wooden doors that were closed. "This is my bedroom," Loki pointed to the right door, "and this is yours," Loki moved his hand to the left door's door knob, he turned it and opened the door, revealing a bedroom with slightly green walls.

Even when it was a lot smaller than his New York's room, it was just a little bit smaller than the one on Massachusetts, and Tony liked in some kind of way that room where there was a single bed placed on the right side, a wardrobe with sliding doors in front of it, a bedside table with a little lamp on it and a wooden desk with two drawers placed on the window, that one was in front of the door and there also was a chair that made Tony decide he didn't like it and he would have to bring his.

"You can leave your box on the floor," Loki commented from the door, "And you can go to get the rest of your things and leave them here," He suggested, knowing that it was impossible for  _Stark_  to bring just a box.

"That's a good idea," Tony accepted, flexing his knees and letting the box on the floor. He walked pass Loki and traveled back to the parking lot, drawing a bag and a suitcase. He closed softly the car's door and went up to the third floor with some difficulty. When he arrived to his  _new_  bedroom, he noticed that Loki hadn't moved from the door, he did when he realized that Tony couldn't enter to the room without hitting him with the package he had.

"I will leave you alone so you can organize your things, I will be in my room, if you need something," Loki suggested, hoping for him to not need anything.

"'Kay," Tony replied, opening the bag he had left on the bed.

Tony saw Loki heading to the living room and coming back with his arms wrapped around his laptop.

"The sheets have been recently washed and changed. Although if you prefer to change them for some you had brought, you can do it so and leave them on the upper part of the wardrobe," Loki felt like saying.

"Thanks," Tony smiled turning his back, just in time to see Loki entering his room and closing his door.

"Well," Tony said playing music on his  _Starkphone_ , "Let's get started,"

Tony started to took the clothes he had brought with him and placed it on the spacious closet, moving at the pace of AC/DC, talking casually with Jarvis and thinking that maybe Loki didn't really hated him. He had shown really cordial on Tony's arrival and he even had fixed his bed, so, yeah, everything could've been a thing of his imagination. Loki had told him that he didn't know Tony, right? How could someone hate someone they didn't know? It didn't make that much sense.

As it was too late to call Sigyn and it was necessary to respect her sleep time, Loki did not find something better to do than to open a math book and start resolving exercises, while he listed music with his favorite earphones in a moderate volume, seated on his desk. After a while, Loki grew bored and decided to lie back on his comfy bed, on the green bedspread with a suspense book he had left mid-read in the morning.

Loki's bedroom was really similar to the one that Stark was using know, only that it was rotated on ninety degrees; the doors of both were on parallel, thought Stark's was closer to the end of the corridor; the window was placed on the same wall where Stark's headboard was, on the right side of Loki's bed. The wardrobe was on parallel to Stark's headboard and Loki had his desk placed on the left side of the bed, there was a bedside table on the right side of the bed and it was Loki's favorite place to let stacked the books he was currently reading and the ones who came after.

He was interrupted when he felt the wooden door being knocked, Loki paused the music and spoke.

"Yes?"

Stark opened the door without waiting for an affirmative response and walked closer.

"Hey,  _Luke_ , I wanted— Hey!" He distracted with a framing photo laying on the desk. Before Loki could protest, Tony took it into his hands. On it there were a smiling Loki with a blond girl who looked really happy, Tony supposed she was Sigyn, "Who is she?" He asked, curiosity taking control of him.

"Sigyn." Loki replied dryly, ignoring the name change, as if that explained everything. Tony mentally snorted.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," Tony commented.

"Why shall you know something about me?" Loki asked raising an eyebrow as he let the book at his right side, "What do you need?" He asked, crossing his legs.

"Ah, yeah," Tony left the photo where it was, "I wanted to ask you for the wifi password," He said, pulling his phone out from his pocket.

It wasn't was if Tony really needed it, he had mobile internet. And if he really wanted it he could have asked Jarvis to find it out, it would only take some seconds and  _voilà_  but he had preferred to come closer and start with his investigation. All because of science.

"Of course," Loki stood up and walked to the stop where Tony was standing, making him feel as a dwarf,  _how tall was Loki!?_   _He was a fucking giant!_  Loki took the phone from Tony's hand and typed the password quickly before returning it to him, "Here,"

"Thanks," Tony smiled, looking up. Why Loki had to be so fucking tall?

"You are welcome," Loki replied cordially, walking away from him, "Would that be all?" He asked, sitting again on the bed.

Tony saw the opportunity to keep a conversation sliding from his fingers,  _which prejudiced the investigation_  and wasn't convenient to him. So Tony throw the first thing that came to his mind.

"I'd also like to take a shower,"

Which wasn't completely a lie, it was true that Tony was all sweaty for having moved so much stuff at his house, deciding what to bring and what to not.

"Oh," Loki commented, "Well, the bathroom is next to my room. If you spin the water tap to the right comes warm water, if you do it to the left comes cold water. Please, leave everything tidy once you have finished," Loki said picking up his book.

"Sure," Tony replied before going out from the room.

Once Loki found himself on his own, he let go a deep breath and lead a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes. Would he be able to resist?

Tony didn't notice it, because he had closed the door at his back.

With a towel in his hands, his clothes and toiletries in the other, Tony walked to the bathroom.

It was about half of the size of Tony's room; it had the walls decorated with light blue tiles on the upper part and white ones from the start of the wooden Vanity table until the floor border. There was a huge mirror above the white sink and a couple of wooden shelves, where were toiletries and a glass where stood a green toothbrush; Tony supposed it was Loki's. Between the mirror and the sink was a soap dispenser and a small basket that contained hand towels. The toilet was also white and was placed at the left side of the Vanity table. The tub was covered with the same white tiles and it was next to the toilet, attached to the wall, in front of the door. The tub was protected by a glass screen and there was a window inside of it, which was covered by a white blind. In front of the toilet was a wooden furniture that almost reached the ceiling where were clean towels and toiletries, Tony had checked after opening it. The floor was completely white, except for a small light blue carpet in front of the tub.

Tony was surprised at how clean the whole place was, asking himself how long had it been since it had been cleaned and organized.

Tony left his things on the closed toilet and started to undress. He went inside the tub with his shampoo in hand and moved the tap, letting go the lukewarm water that was well received by his tired body. While he washed his hair, Tony started to wander about the decision he had made. However, and given to the fact that Tony had taken a short shower, he stopped the water without getting to a conclusion. Still in the tub, Tony started to dry his body with the towel he had brought and, once he was completely dry, he got out of it and he dressed with a sleeveless black shirt and red pajama bottoms. Tony took his stuff and walked to his bedroom, making sure of letting the bathroom as clean as it had been before.

"Have you finished?" Loki asked looking up from his book, making Tony stop mid-way. He had forgotten he needed to walk to Loki's door, who was already on pajamas.

"Yep," Tony replied with the towel on his shoulders.

"You can throw your towel into the laundry basket on your room or you can hang it on the balcony for it to dry, as you want. The laundry is closed at this hour," Loki suggested.

"Oh, thanks," Tony smiled. He opted for the second option and walked in the contrary direction, walking pass the dining room. He turned to the right, walking towards the living room until a huge picture window, the balcony was behind it. He slipped one of the doors and went outside. There was a little of wind and Tony thought it would be perfect for his towel to get dry. He left it above the clothes drying hanger that was placed there.

When he was outside Loki's room, Tony poked his head on his door. Loki stared at him.

"Did you turn off the lights?" Loki asked, his book was closed on the table.

"Uh, yes," Tony replied, showing himself on the door.

"Thank you," Loki said emotionless.

"You're welcome," Tony replied, "Goodnight" He added when he realized Loki wasn't gonna say anything more, Tony decided to keep the " _I guess_ " for himself.

"Goodnight," Loki said, in the same dull voice he had used before.

Instinctively, Tony closed Loki's door and walked to his, closing it too. He dropped to the bed, rolling until he found a place under the covers and he breathed its smell, it smelled as jasmine, and he took his phone.

"Hey, Jarvis," Tony greeted, turning on the screen.

" _Sir?"_ He replied.

"How many things can go wrong while I'm living here?" Tony asked.

" _I do not exactly know it, sir. I will evaluate all the possible death scenarios and I will give you statistics,"_

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Tony rolled up, staring at the ceiling with his back on the mattress.

 _How bad the consequences of him living there could be?_  Tony questioned again, this time for himself.

Without finding an exact response, Tony fell asleep, wrapped in tiredness and jasmine.

_"_ _Sir, do you realize that Mr. Friggason handed you the phone?"_

But it was too late, Tony was already dreaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hello~! I wanted to tell to anyone who is reading this that I'm not going to be able to update until December, due to school and stuff.  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter~


	4. Contract

_“Good morning, sir. It is seven in the morning, the temperature is fifty Fahrenheit degrees and the maximum expecting is forty-four degrees. If you do not get up in this moment, you will be late again.”_

“Hmm… Five more minutes,” Tony complained, covering to the top of his head with the blanket.

“ _Sir…”_

“Agh, okay.”

Tony opened his eyes cursing every single thing in the world for not letting him sleep more. When he got into a sitting position Tony felt disoriented, without knowing where he was until he remembered his decisions and realized he was at Loki’s apartment.

He get up mumbling senseless words about the fucking schedule he had and walked towards the bathroom leaving his phone at the bedroom. Tony took a quick shower and got out of the bathroom dressed with a black, ‘v’ neck t-shirt, dark jeans and black sneakers. Walking again to his bedroom, Tony noticed the silence surrounding the place.

“Hey, Jarv, where’s _Luke_?” Tony asked taking his phone.

_“It seems that Mr. Friggason has left the apartment, sir.”_

“Hmm…” Tony muttered, “He could’ve waited for me if we’re going to the same place, couldn’t he?”

_“That would have been certainly more convenient for him, sir.”_

“Right?” Tony said getting closer to the nightstand. “Well, it’s up to him. I don’t really care.” Tony said with a shrug.

He took his wallet and car keys, which were left on the nightstand the night before, and walked to the kitchen, attempting to make him some coffee, passing through the dining room. Luckily for him, inside one of the boxes Tony had brought, were his favorites coffee grains, Tony supposed Loki wouldn’t really mind if he made use of the coffee maker, right? Once in the kitchen, Tony stopped when a sparkle placed in the worktop called his attention. There was a set of keys tied together by a Snowflake keychain next to a note saying: “ _This are your keys. I forgot to give you them yesterday.”_ With an explanation of whichwas which.

“How thoughtful,” Tony commented before taking a sip of the delicious nectar.

When there was no drop less in the mug, Tony left it in the sink and walked out the apartment, _there would be time to clean the kitchen and his bed, later._

“Jarv,” Tony said once he was on the front sit of the car.

 _“Yes,_ s _ir?”_

“Guide me,” Tony ordered taking the steering wheel in his hands after putting the security belt on.

The engine’s roar was a sound that Tony really liked, it was soft and surrounding, almost like a purr. He could be all day inside the car with me engine going. The screen placed on the right side of the dashboard showed a map with the trajectory that Tony needed to follow in order to get to MIT. The way felt really shorter, it had taken him fifty minutes or so to get there, in contrast with the almost forty-five minutes that had taken him in the past. He was really surprised getting to the classroom as the first one and the teachers’ surprise had been even bigger. _Great_ , now he felt like a nerd.

“I knew it was gonna be a great idea, eh.” Tony commented making a pen spin in his hand.

As in any other class –except by Calculus, where he _was_ busy,- Tony put on his best concentration face while he wrote things the teacher said, complementing them with his own knowledge about the issue.

_Really, what was he doing there, again?_

_Ah, yes. Diploma._

Tony exhaled staring at the clock above the whiteboard.

He had hope of the difficult getting higher while the time passed and then, maybe, he’d find himself putting the effort to learn more.

Tony took his cellphone and sent a message to Bruce, aiming for an opportunity to get distracted.

**_I’m dying of boredom. –T._ **

Tony shelved his phone and seconds later it vibrated under the desk. When he was sure that the teacher wasn’t looking, Tony unlocked the screen.

**_Uh, concentrate in your classes? –B._ **

Tony felt like rolling his eyes before sliding his fingers on the screen.

**_You’re no fun. –T._ **

He didn’t get an answer so he decided to give up. Then, Tony started to make senseless scrawls in the open notebook on the desk, writing some notes about the improvements he could do to Dum-E, maybe he could install a screen to show funny videos or random sounds, that’d be really awesome if only he had taken Dum-E with him, was it possible for it to fit in the apartment? Tony’d have to measure and try.

The bell rang after a time Tony perceived as an eternity and he exited the room hurriedly, accommodating his backpack while he crossed the door.

“Uh… what to do?” Tony asked no-one in particular searching for a song to listen on his phone.

 _“Following Mr. Banner’s advice would not do any harm, sir.”_ Jarvis suggested through the earphone.

“We don’t think the same, Jay.” Tony said going through the playlist until finding a song he liked in that moment.

Uhm, his next class was Biophysics with a teacher who Tony still hadn’t bother to remember her name. He could go and cover his morning caffeine quote, but the Starbucks local with the best cupcakes was at the other side of the campus and there was no way in hell where Tony could go, enjoy peacefully his coffee and then go to classes; and walking with the coffee to the classroom would make it go cold and if there was something that Tony couldn’t stand was cold coffee. _No, thank you_. He could also lay on the grass until the class was about to start, but that didn’t called his attention, neither.

Changing the song, it crossed his mind the idea of going to the library and find a Biophysics book, then he’d be able to, at least, get distracted while the teacher said stuff he already knew. Who knows? A couple of random facts about the issue could improve his mood. Yeah, it seemed like a good idea.

Tony walked to the faculty’s library and got inside of it, walking through the large hallways filled with books that could be used to kill someone if you hit that someone in the neck with one of them. Not that Tony felt like trying it. He wandered around the shelves until he found a book that caught his attention about the matter, Tony walked where the tables and seats where, and he smiled archly.

Saying that he was surprised at seeing _him_ in the library would be lying, anytime that Tony had ran into him, he had been reading. God, how _nerdy_ was Loki? He was always with a book on his hand, didn’t he had something better to do? Tony doubted between approaching him or leave him alone, maybe Loki’d think Tony was following him or something, then Tony remembered that he pretty much didn’t care if Loki thought that. Plus, they were just coincidences.

“Care if I sit here?” Tony asked behind Loki.

“Not at all.” Loki replied absently, completely lost in the story he was reading.

Tony admired Loki’s capacity to get lost in reading. Or maybe he was just ignoring him.

“Hey,” Tony said after taking a seat.

Loki recognized the voice and had to hold an exasperated sigh.

“Hello,” Loki said going back to the world he was being taken from.

Tony got the directly indirect message, but he decided to act as if he hadn’t gotten it. Tony opened his book in a random page and gave a little peek to the title. Osmosis. _Huh._

“So…” Tony started without looking away from the book, “Why did you left in the morning?”

“Because I had to come for classes, perhaps?” Loki replied turning the page.

“You could’ve waited for me, I mean, we were heading for the same place, right?”

“Why should I have done it so?” Loki asked calmly.

“‘Cause I could’ve brought you here?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“Uhmm…”

Tony mentally snorted and tried to worry himself with his book and with how the water passed through the plasma membrane of a cell to equalize concentrations and was interrupted when he heard the sound of the bell ringing, indicating the recess’ end. Tony lifted his gaze and realized that Loki hadn’t made even the slightest gesture to move, in fact, Loki was just as concentrated in the book as he had been before Tony had spoken to him. Tony payed attention to the way Loki’s eyes moved and asked himself how Loki’d read so fast. Ah, he was a library mouse, right. _Wait. Wasn’t he a cat? Whatever._

He waited until Loki had finished the chapter he was reading before interrupting him again, Tony wasn’t _that_ inconsiderate, anyway.

“So, don’t you plan on moving?”

“I do not have classes at this hour.”

“Ah… Me neither,” Tony commented turning the page of the book. Not that he had been all that time in the same page, eh. Or maybe…

“Uhm…” Loki mumbled without paying him any attention.

Tony wondered if he’d leave Loki alone and let him read or if he should feel personally offended by Loki’s attitude on him. Choosing the latter option, Tony decided to interrupt, again.

“Thanks for the keys,” Tony said acting as if he hadn’t looked away from the book.

“I should have given them to you yesterday, my mistake.”

“Really. You could’ve left me locked in the apartment, eh.”

“Then I would have risked at you tearing up the door,” Loki replied, leaving the ‘It is not as if it had not crossed my mind’ for himself.

“Heh, that’s true.”

There was a pause that told Tony about Loki not being interested on any kind of conversation, but he wasn’t gonna give up just because. How could he called himself _Tony Stark_ if he gave up that easily?

“So, what’re you doing here?” Tony asked ignoring the fact that _he_ was trying to force a conversation.

“I am _trying_ to read.  Do you know that it is a library?”

Tony fought the impulse telling him to repeatedly slam his head in the table.

“I meant at this side of the campus,” Tony replied instead of exploding his head.

“The seats are more comfortable,” Loki said with almost a shrug. Gods, why was he so incapable of keeping silence? Where was the librarian when she was needed? Loki lifted his gaze and looked at the desk where he found her, sleeping. How efficient!

“So… which career stole your soul and took you into the marvelous universe of MIT?”

“That is none of your business.”

“Eh?”

“Would you let me read in peace?”

“Hey, why you so aggressive?”

Loki looked away from the book and looked at Tony. Tony’d have seen it as a triumph if it wasn’t for the words that followed.

“Listen. You and I are not friends. Because of the _cruel_ destiny we are living together. However, that does not mean that I like you. Now I may ask for you to please leave the table if you came with the purpose of interrupt my reading. If it is not in your options leave, could you, at least, stay in silence? Thank you.”

Tony resisted the urge to scream demanding answers and Loki hold back the urge to take his book and hit him in the nape repeatedly or to get away from the place in order for him to enjoy peacefully the book he was dedicating himself to re-read in silence, but Loki knew that would be fleeing and he was not willing to keep fleeing. And he was not seeking for life imprisonment caused by having killed a man with a book, either.

“I thought we didn’t know each other,” Tony said after a moment of silence.

“We do not,” Loki reaffirmed and kept reading.

“How can you hate me if you don’t know me?” –Tony kept trying.

Loki cursed himself for being incapable of hold himself back.

“It is necessary? Knowing a person to have an opinion about said person?” Loki asked, instead.

“Hum, I guess?”

“How could I like you if I do know you not?”

“Are you proposing for us to know each other?” Tony answered smiling widely.

“No.” Loki stopped his reading for a moment, cursing himself again.

“Aww… C’mon…”

Loki didn’t answer.

Tony was asking himself for a quite a while how much time had passed until he took his phone from his pocket, seconds later, Tony could hear how the bell indicated the end of the class he was supposed to be in. And the only thing he had read about Osmosis had been the title.

“So, uh—” Tony tried to talk again, but was cut in the middle of his sentence.

“Just… Mind your own business, Stark,” Loki said emotionless while he stood up with the book already on his backpack and started to walk towards the exit of the library.

Loki exited the place and walked to his next class without looking back, with a frown. He changed his expression for a blank one when he realized he was attracting curious gazes and he was getting closer to the classroom. Loki tried with all his force to concentrate in the class and if it wasn’t because he already knew some things about the issue, he had failed miserably. It had to be useful having studied the matter time ago.

When the class ended, Loki walked calmly to the bus stop, although inside he just wanted to run. Loki got in the bus without knowing what he should really feel at the moment, what was the reason behind the sudden interest? Loki sighed watching through the window without paying attention to the outside. He tried to calm down, he just had to wait until other person got interested in the apartment and he could get rid of Stark, was there any legal fundament for doing it? Probably it was not, but Loki would have to find a way to make it and go back to live his life in peace. Peace, peace, peace. How can it be over in the course of a day? Why? Why? Wh— Loki realized that he was already on his stop and he stood up hurriedly. He got to the street and, before going inside the place, he made sure of looking happy.

When he entered, the little bell made a sound indicating to the employees that someone had arrived. The tables were still empty and there was a girl cleaning one of them who looked to the door. It took less than a second to recognize the guy who decided to go inside before the opening hour.

“Hey, Loki,” she said with a smile.

“Good afternoon, Amora.”

Amora was a little bit smaller than Loki. Her eyes were green and her blond hair fell with elegant waves until her waist, her voluptuous silhouette caught the attention and glances wherever she was. He was wearing the blouse of the café with the first two buttons undone, showing her cleavage. Loki supposed that this, along with the skinny black leggings she was also wearing, helped her to increase her tips.

“What makes you get so early? Are you trying to see the boss’ good face, eh?” She joked walking to another table.

“I got off a little bit earlier, that is all,” Loki replied walking to the hallway that got to a door with a sign saying that it was just for employees.

Once he got there Loki looked at the watch in his left wrist. It was almost two o’clock, which meant the lunch time was getting closer and it was once of the hour when people went to the café the most. Loki was hoping to get good tips.

He walked towards his locker and opened it, taking the shirt and the apron he had to wear from it. He took his shirt off and slipped his arms inside the shirt’s sleeves. Amora went inside while he was buttoning the shirt.

“You know not the concept of privacy, don’t you?”

“Looking at your body is always delight, sweetie,” she said amused.

“Don’t you have a boyfriend?” Loki asked straightening his bowtie in the mirror. Truth to be told, at the beginning Amora’s commentaries had made his blood run cold and had made him wish to call a lawyer, but after the first couple of weeks Loki had understood that it was her natural behavior, besides, he had remembered that he had not the amount of money to pay for a lawyer and he had get used to her commentaries. It was the easier way.

“Yeah, and I think he’ll get late today,” she sighed looking at his phone, “He’s almost asking to get fired.”

“How is that nobody is here yet?” Loki asked while he tied the apron on his waist.

“I don’t know. Maybe they overslept or something,” Amora said before the bell rang again, “It has to be some of them. Have you finished?”

“Yes,” Loki replied closing his locker with his things inside.

“You get the first tables,” Amora commented while she walked to the front side of the local.

“Since when are you in charge?” Loki asked walking behind her.

“Since I got the keys.”

Amora turned back and playfully stuck his tongue out. Then she talked to the other employee that had arrived.

“Heh, you finally decided to get in time.”

“Shut your mouth, Amora,” She answered walking to the back side.

“You have such a _lovely_ sister,” Loki said archly taking a notepad and a pen from a drawer near to the cash register.

“I know she loves me in the inside,” Amora replied walking to the glass door to change the ‘closed’ sign.

Being a café waiter was never his dreamed job, but it was a lot better than starve to death and live under a bridge. His coworkers were certainly _peculiar_ , he had to admit. And he got really amused watching them interact with each other. Loki could imagine Sigyn telling him to care more about them and to try and make a bond with them. _At least of you just liking each other,_ Loki was sure she would tell him. In fact, he was sure that Sigyn was talking about them when she said something about him needing to try and make friends. But Loki was unable to see them as friends, he did need not friends, he needed Sigyn. And Stark leaving.

One by one the customers were starting to arrive and Skurge, Amora’s gigantic boyfriend, effectively got late and had to be a while being scolded at the office.

As it was a weekday, Loki could left earlier, so he did and followed the way to the apartment where a lot of homework would be waiting for him. He supported his elbow on the bus window looking at the buildings moving through it, letting his mind to wander in various kinds of things with no great relevance that he would forget once he had gotten to his destination.

Once inside the apartment he found Stark laying on one of the sofas, tablet in hands. Loki tried to ignore his presence and walked directly to his own bedroom. He threw himself to his bed for a couple of minutes until he decided it was time to get up and do something with his life, so he sit in his desk’s chair and got into doing homework.

Tony had got there a few hours before, waiting for Loki to came a little bit later than him and see how much time he could be without being stabbed. Who knew how much time could it be? However, by the passing time of half an hour of being seated on the couch, he decided to take his tablet and started wasting time with it. So productive! Right? After a while of being wandering around blogs and reading stupid news, Tony heard a keyset making a ringing sound on the other of the door, he turned to it at the perfect time to see it being opened and Loki going inside. Tony turned back to his tablet until he listened Loki’s door closing.

Tony let out a breath and got himself into a sitting position seeing the possibilities of getting info by the good way fade away right before his eyes. He stayed like that until he heard a common ringtone, his _Starkphone._ Tony saw the name of the caller and exclaimed.

“Shit,” he said before answering, “Hey, Pepp!”

“Tony? Where are you?”

“Uhm… at my place?”

“No, you’re not. I’m outside and Jarvis seems to be shut off.”

“Uhm… I... kinda moved.”

“You did what!?”

Tony jerked away from the phone when he heard Pepper’s exasperated scream.

“Hehe…” Tony laughed and scratched his head.

“Forget it. Tell me address, I’ll go there now.”

Tony’d hear the door of Pepper’s car being shut with more force than the necessary. Poor car.

“Okay,” Tony said standing up, “wait a minute.”

Tony walked to Loki’s room and knocked the door.

“Hey, _Luke_. Care to tell me the apartment’s address?”

“You don’t even know where you live!?” Pepper shouted through the phone.

“Hey! At least I know how to get here.”

Loki opened his door and he found Stark with the phone at his ear, smiling with fun. Right, everything was a game for him, for sure.

“Could you..?” Tony asked handing him the phone.

Loki let of an exhausted sigh and took it.

“Hello? Yes, uhm. I am Loki…”

Tony felt a little surprised with how cordial and polite Loki could be while talking with other people. Notify the ‘other’, sure, Tony didn’t count, eh? He could hear how Loki gave the address and some indications to Pepper and he asked himself if Loki was always that formal when he spoke to strangers. Except for him, of course.

Loki moved away the dispositive from his ear and gave it to Tony, who accepted it and began talking again.

“See? It’s not necessary for me to—“

“I’m going my way. Don’t you dare to run away,” Pepper interrupted him before hanging the phone.

“Great talk,” Tony said rolling his eyes and storing his phone in his pants’ pocket. “So… would you like to accompany me to the dining room?” Tony looked up to meet Loki’s face. Fuck feeling like a Hobbit.

“What would the reason be?” Loki asked looking down. Tony’d bet Loki loved the feeling of superiority caused by watching him from above.

“Probably, a cent per cent of probability, heh, of her wanting to talk with you, also.” Tony said shoving his hand into his pockets, “So…”

Loki wanted to hit him. He wished for, at least, being able to avoid him in his own room doing any other thing or anything at all, but alone. Relaxed, in peace, in silence. Without the knowledge of how to face the situation, Loki ended up passing before Stark at the hallway and seating on his chosen chair on the dinner table, searching desperately for his happy place to calm down. After a while, a redhead girl who, according to the information given by Stark, was the personal assistant of _Howard Stark -_ also known as the head of the company-, had arrived and the first thing she had done has been throw her purse to Stark. Then she approached the place where Loki was.

“Hey, you must be Loki, right?” she cordially asked to the guy who was watching her with curiosity in his eyes.

“Indeed I am,” Loki replied with the same cordiality, “Please,” Loki started pointing to a chair in front of him, “Have a seat, Miss…”

“Pepper,” Tony cut him walking closer after tossing her things on the couch, “Now, that wasn’t a really cute way of saying ‘hi’, eh?” he said before sitting on Loki’s left.

Pepper’s expression changed to a fierce one when she faced Tony.

“What? You were the one who told me to find a closer place.”

“You could’ve told me, at least. Don’t you think so?” she said sitting.

“Well… I moved on yesterday, anyway,” Tony said with a shrug.

“You have no remedy,” Pepper said sighing, then she supported her forehead on her palm and her elbow on the table.

“Could I bring you a glass of water?” Loki asked her after feeling bad for her. Any person who had to constantly deal with Stark deserved an award.

“Yes, please.”

Loki stood up and walked to the kitchen. He wondered the main reason of her being here and, realizing that he would not get any answer inside the fridge, he returned with a glass filled with fresh water and he noticed that she had not moved, not even an inch.

“Here you have,” Loki said after leaving the glass in front of her.

“Thank you,” she gave him a faint smile, “I apologize for any inconvenient that this stupid guy had made you go into.”

“Don’t say it like I was doing something bad to him,” Tony rolled his eyes.

“So,” Pepper said putting the glass on the table, “you two have a deal, right?”

“We have it, yes,” Loki answered.

“Good,” she straighten herself on the chair, “I want that fridge always filled with food. For both of you. And I would like for you, Loki, to notify me of any trouble that guy over there may cause. Here, take my card,” Pepper said and gave it to him.

“What do you mean with that? I don’t need any kind of babysitter!”

“I do not understand,” Loki said taking the card and ignoring Tony, “Why has the food be there for the both of us? I can buy my own, do you know? I _do_ have a job.”

“Do you? That’s why you were late!” Tony said drinking from Pepper’s glass.

“I want to make sure that you will not sue him, actually,” Pepper replied ignoring Tony’s comment.

“¿Eh?”

“Tony is… complicated and idle. You can take it as a bribery.”

“What!? Don’t say that! You wanna sue me? Go ahead. I’ve got lawyers, you know? At least three of yours.”

Loki would have liked to say that three multiplied by zero was still zero, but doing that would only help to hurt his pride. And well, Odin had got lawyers, however, that did not make Loki feel any better, so he remained still and quiet.

“I don’t think that a big guy with a mustache and goatee combo in a tuxedo would be happy if you got sued.”

“But I’m not wearing a tux,” Tony said confused, Pepper looked at him with her eyebrows raised, “Oh, you mean _him.”_

“Your fath—“

“Don’t call him that,” Tony interrupted her bitterly. Loki watched him with a sight of surprise before going back to watch the glass.

“Fine. Mr. Stark—“ Pepper started and Tony looked coldly at her, making her to let a breath, “Mr. _Howard_ Stark wouldn’t be that pleased if he finds out that you not only decided to move with a guy he doesn’t know, but also got sued by said guy.”

Tony snorted grumpily and crossed his arms.

“I am sorry, Miss Potts,” Loki interfered, “Is this truly necessary?”

“Well…” she answered taking the glass away from Tony, “Due to the fact that both of you have a deal, I can’t do anything but support it if the both of you agree with it.”

Loki was about to object, but he controlled himself. He was aware, there was no other option.

 “Tony,” Pepper called him, “Are you sure you want to live here?”

“Yeah,” Tony answered. And it wasn’t a lie, he still had things to _investigate_ , anyway.

“And you are okay with this, Loki?”

Both of them stared at Loki and he felt the urge to punch Stark demanding for him to get away from his beautiful apartment and stopped polluting the air Loki breathed. Or the urge of flying to Norway and never come back.

Sadly, Loki was aware of the ability of going on with those options not being in his capacities.  

“Ah, yes,” He said at last with secure he felt not, hating how the world spun around money.

“I’ll make a contract, then. One not any of you would be able to break, okay?”

“What if we do?” Tony asked making Loki to look at Pepper with some kind of interest.

“You would surely not like the outcome, Tony. Please, didn’t you want to be treated as an adult? Then act like on, for your tech’s sake, and don’t you go around breaking contracts.”

Tony looked at the ceiling. Why did he always say stuff that ended up being used against him?

“That would be all. For now, I would like to ask you to send me an email for being able to request the necessary data about you, Mr. Friggason.”

“Of course,” Loki answered coming back to reality.

“Next time you see me around here, I’ll bring the contract.”

“I can escort you to the exit,” Tony offered standing up.

“I know how to get there. Don’t you push yourself,” Pepper replied with feign worry.

Tony felt the impulse to hit her or to say something. However, knowing that doing something like that wouldn’t be convenient for him, he sat back reluctantly with his arm crossed.

“Thank you for your courtesy, Mr. Friggason,” Pepper said before opening the door.

“Whenever it shall be needed, Miss Potts,” Loki answered gaining a smile from Pepper, making Tony to question some things while he rolled his eyes and exhaled.

“Please, Tony, behave,” Pepper said in a menacing tone of voice.

“Yeah, I will. I guess,” Tony said supporting his back on the chair’s backrest, “Don’t let the door hit you.”

Loki watched while Pepper crossed the door and disappeared closing it, without knowing what he should be feeling at the moment. Besides the necessity of punching Stark, of course.

His plan was to endure until someone else miraculously got interested in the beauty of the apartment and would want to live with him, but no. The assistant had to come to make a contract. So great! Now the plan to get rid of Stark was out of the frame. How painful.

“So…” Tony commented turning to Loki.

“I will head to my bedroom,” Loki cut him standing up.

“Yeah, I supposed you were gonna said something like that,” he said watching Loki going to his room.

Once inside, Loki closed the door. He took his cellphone and sent a message to Sigyn.

**_I think there is no escaping. –L._ **

Loki walked to his wardrobe and pulled out his pajama. He got the bottoms first and then he worried himself with the buttons of the top part, seated on his bed. Loki dragged his phone just by habit and got surprised when he noticed the notification telling him that he had got a new message.

**Something you want to talk about? –S.**

Loki freed his feet from the grey slippers and seated with his legs crossed.

**_I thought you would be sleeping. Please, tell me I did not wake you up. –L._ **

Loki watched the mobile application that told him Sigyn was writing her response until he got it.

**No, keep calm. Remember what I told you about not being accustomed at the time change? I really meant it. –S.**

Loki stared at the smiley face at the end of the message before writing his answer.

**_Have you try to drink milk with honey? –L._ **

**We ran out of milk today. –S.**

Loki was about to reply when another message took possession of the screen.

**Anyway, what did you mean with your first message? –S.**

Loki sighed.

**_The assistant of Stark came today, –she left the apartment just a moment ago- she will make a contract about the stay of Stark here. –L._ **

**What kind of contract? –S.**

**_Miss Potts said something about the fridge having to be full of full for both of us, when I asked her why she told me that I should take it as a bribery in order for me to not sue him, can you believe it? –L._ **

**At least you got free food, right? –S.**

**_I do not need his money. –L._ **

**_Well, perhaps I do. –L._ **

**_But only to pay the rent. –L._ **

Loki felt completely defeated. He could be in good terms with himself knowing that he needed financial help. He was no idiot, he knew that trying to cope with the apartment and his career by himself only could bring starving to death in a bridge as consequence. Or making him go back to the house of Odin. And he was not willing to adventure himself to know which one was worse. Yes, he could live with that; what he cannot live with and what made him hate everything was having to depend on Stark. He would have accepted the worst punishment if it was not because he was just too prideful to go back with his tail between his legs, accepting that was a mistake having left at first place. No, sir. That was not going not happen. He would not give the satisfaction of seeing him that way to Odin. Unless… No. Loki was not even going to stop to think about that.

The vibration on his hand made him come back to reality.

**Is he the same as always? –S.**

Loki rolled his eyes.

**_Do you mean arrogant, moron, persistent, stubborn, full of himself and narcissist? Yes, he is still the same. –L._ **

**How much time have you been living with him, again? –S.**

**_A day. –L._ **

**How can you know it, then? Maybe he is not as he used to be. –S.**

Loki felt a little bit betrayed. How could Sigyn be defending him?

**_I am sorry, which side are you on? –L._ **

**Yours, of course. –S.**

Loki wrote his answer with a frown.

**_Then why are you defending him? –L._ **

**I am not doing that. How could I? –S.**

**What I am trying to say is that you shall not forget why you are there or why you did accept his offer. Do not concentrate on him, perhaps you won’t even have to see him. –S.**

Sigyn’s response was accompanied by a smiley face that made Loki doubt between telling her about the library incident or letting it pass.

**_Yes, I guess you are right. –L._ **

**I feel like there is something you are not telling me. –S.**

How could she be so awake if it was around four in the morning in Norway? Loki probably would not be able to emit coherent thoughts had he not sleep the enough amount of time.

 **_He approached me in the campus library today. You know_ ** **he _also is at MIT, yes? –L._**

**What did he say? Or did he just stood there? –S.**

**_He tried to start a talk. It was really grisly. –L._ **

Loki shivered at the recall.

**Uh, perhaps he wants to make things better? –S.**

**_Yes, of course. –L._ **

**_No, he had asked me why I ‘_ ** **hated’ _him days before. Gods, he gives himself so much credit. Of course I told him I did know him not. He does not even remember me. Hel, he is even incapable of saying my name correctly. He is so annoying. –L._**

**How is that you hadn’t told me about this before? –S.**

**It doesn’t matter. I guess this is your chance to ignore him, don’t you think so? –S.**

**Loki, really, I doubt it’s worthy to concentrate so much in him. More important, how are things at work going? –S.**

**_You are obsessed with my coworkers, yes? –L._ **

**With your relations, actually. –S.**

**_Yes, yes. I am trying. –L._ **

Loki smiled at imagining Sigyn’s scowl, knowing she did not believe in him. He did appreciate the way Sigyn always worried about him and he would always be grateful for having met her.

**I hope so. –S.**

**I think tiredness is beating me. Maybe is time for me to leave. –S.**

**_Thank you for being around, Sigyn. I hope you have nice dreams. –L._ **

**Always if you need me, Loki. Sleep well. Good luck tomorrow. –S.**

It was the last message Loki received that night.

He stood and walked to the bathroom. Through Stark’s door Loki could see him lying on his bed facing the ceiling with the tablet still on his hands and didn’t give him importance.

Loki brushed his teeth and then went to the living room. He made sure of closing the door and the windows and turning all the lights off. Having done that, he walked to his room and turned his own light off. He crawled to his bed and covered himself with the blanket, rolling until he was facing the wall.

_Ignoring him was just the best option. It could not be that difficult, right?_

Loki closed his eyes searching for a way to fall asleep. An exhausting day would be waiting for him tomorrow, and the day after that, and those that followed.

Tony, meanwhile, was making a list of the things he’d brought from his former place and he fell asleep hours late, thinking about how he’d make Dum-E enter from the front door.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone reading this: Why are you? Just kidding, thank you very much it you're here. This chapter is long but it doesn't make me really proud. I know, it was not that interesting, I've been having so many things in my mind, but you're not here to read about my life, you're here for the fic! I promise things will get better, I guess. xD  
> I realized this is going to be a long fic, so if any of you was seeking something short, I'm sorry. But please, keep reading~  
> Now I'm on vacation, so maybe I'll be able to update sooner~!  
> Anyway, thank you very much if you made your way until here.  
> A lot of frostironed kisses and hugs!♥


	5. How to: Drive your roommate crazy. Step one.

Many days had happen by and Tony was learning how boring it was living with someone who tried and succeeded on ignoring you by any possible way. Loki left the apartment before Tony got up and came back hours later, tired. He ate something and went directly to his bedroom. It was even more boring than living alone, at least when he lived alone Tony could do whatever he wanted to and he could told Jarvis to modify stuff or he could stay in his workshop for days. It this kept being this way, Tony’d end up rummaging in Loki’s room while he wasn’t there to see if he’d find something for his investigation; and it wasn’t as if it hadn’t crossed Tony’s mind. C’mon, Tony was curious and he had always got his own way, but he had been restraining himself because he didn’t want to have to deal with Loki _and Pepper’s_ wrath. Who knows what kind of things they could do to him? And Tony didn’t want to leave just because, neither; it’d be giving up. And Tony didn’t give up. Even less after just some days. Tony was sure that he was capable of keep bearing with Loki’s indifference. Scratch that, Tony was prepared to see how far that indifference could get. And he wished to see Loki explode, or cry, or scream, or smile, or having any fucking emotion, for fuck’s sake!

Tony wasn’t going to be ignored like that. He didn’t even know the reason! What did all of that mean? Besides, he wasn’t able to find data about Loki, it was as if the kid had appeared from nowhere to Massachusetts. Tony’d bet for the hypothesis of Loki being a product of his own imagination, but Pepper had talked to Loki as well.

At least Tony was getting on time to his classes, so he didn’t have Pepper over him constantly harassing with things like, “ _Be more responsible, Tony,” “You’re not going to be a good boss like that, Tony” “This is not going to end well for you, Tony”,_ so everything was okay. For now. Although ‘okay’ meant ‘calm’ and that usually went to ‘boring’, and Tony couldn’t stand being bored for a long time.

“So,” Tony said lying on the couch, speaking to Loki, who was seated on the dining table with his laptop, “You’re always this boring?”

“That does not concern you,” Loki replied without looking away from his computer while he typed fast.

“What’re you doing, anyway?” Tony asked going back to look at his tablet. He needed to bring his tv. His stuff. He needed his stuff.

“An essay.” Loki replied.

“Uhm…” Tony mumbled absently, reading celebrity gossip.

After a while of Loki’s typing sound filling the apartment, Tony got a message that told him about a big party that would start soon, Tony hadn’t gone to parties in a long time and he had been behaving, so he deserved it. It wasn’t the time to the party to start yet, but Tony could go to the store first and buy alcohol, alcohol was never unwanted. Maybe Tony should eat something before going, too, or he could just go ahead to the party.

Yeah, it would be fun.

“Well, I think I’ll go out,” Tony said for himself standing up.

“You cannot do that,” Loki said without looking at him.

“Hey, don’t you take the ‘babysitter’ role too serious. You can’t decide that stuff, you know?” Tony said feeling offended. How old Loki thought Tony was? He had never had to ask for permission to party and he wouldn’t start now, when he was an adult.

“Do you think that I could care less if you went out or not?” Loki gave him a gaze.

“As loving as always,” Tony said with a mocking voice, “So, why should I stay? Are you afraid of being alone?”

Loki restrained himself of rolling his eyes.

“Miss Potts sent me an e-mail. She will bring the contract today,”

“What?” Tony asked moving closer to Loki, “Why didn’t she tell _me_? Show me that mail.”

Loki moved the cursor to the tab that showed his email and he searched until the one sent by Pepper displayed on the screen.

“Eh, it isn’t touch? What kind of dinosaur do you have?” Tony asked amused.

 “If I had enough money to buy the last technology, I would not— not need a roommate, do you not think so?” Loki said without emotion, looking straight to the screen, not letting the ‘I would not have to be living with _you_ ’ getting away from his lips.

“Heh, you really hate me,” Tony said reading the message on the screen.

“No, I do not.”

“You try to convince yourself about that every night before going to sleep?” Tony asked resting on Loki’s chair just to piss him off.

“Yes, while you try to convince yourself that you are pleasant,” Loki said going back to his essay.

Tony felt like laughing. When he wasn’t silent like a fucking mime, Loki knew how to throw comebacks. And it was funny. Who knows? Maybe all of this could work.

“Do you plan to stay there all day? If you want so badly to read it I can send it to you later,” Loki asked watching him.

“As if it was that interesting,” Tony snorted walking to the couch again, where he took his phone and sent a message to the party host: **_Sorry, can’t. Need to take care of legal issues. –T_**

Loki took a break and minimized the document he was working on. Unfortunately for him, Sigyn was not online and Loki hope that it was because she was sleeping. Loki really wished for her to be able to sleep normally again. So he decided to not take a risk and did not send her a message, fearing that if he did he would wake her up, thereby Loki closed his laptop and walked to the fridge, from where he took a soda and went back to the dining table, this time with the book that had been resting next to the laptop; it would not make any harm to rest his mind for a while, right?

When that while turned into an amount of time that Loki stopped counting because he was too focused on the book to pay attention to the clock, he heard the bell ring. There was no reason to ask who was behind the door, and even if there was a reason, _Stark_ had opened it before Loki lifted his gaze, waiting for end the chapter where he was.

“Hey, Pepp!” Tony said while she crossed the door and left her stuff on the couch when he had been laying.

“Tony! It’s nice to see that you didn’t run away,” Pepper said walking towards the dining table, “Good job, Loki,” she said before sitting in front of him.

“It was a pleasure,” Loki said with a little mocking smile.

“Doesn’t this give you a _déjà vu_ feeling?” Tony said walking to the dining table and seated next to Loki.

“I spoke to the owner,” Pepper said ignoring Tony, “And we chose some rules that _both_ of you must follow.”

Tony rolled his eyes when he felt that ‘both’ was directed to him. Nothing guaranteed her that _Luke_ would obey everything, did she know that?

“What kind of rules?” Tony asked wanting to know if they were convenient or not for him.

“First, not demolish, nor pierce or scratch the walls, ceiling or floors; and that goes for you, Tony,” Pepper said pointing him with the pen on her hand.

“Where is the fun in that?” Tony said with a fake pout, “Wait, what about wireless stuff? Can I install them?”

“I suppose there should be no problem—”

“Great!” Tony interrupted her.

“If the both of you agree,” Pepper concluded.

“Of course,” Tony said with a feign smile.

_Oh, fine._ The problem wasn’t stuff like a tv, his chair, his favorite pillow or Dum-E, well, maybe Dum-E would be a problem, but the real problem came with the cameras. Tony wanted cameras connected to his tech and controlled by Jarvis. Tony loved the sensation of being able to watch everything and the possibility of control that came with that. However, his gut told him that Loki wouldn’t like the idea.

He decided that there would be time to discuss about that with Loki later. It was time to listen to Pepper to avoid being hit.

“The owner also told me that the big parties weren’t allowed because they disturbed the neighbors. And commented that Loki already knew this and had never had any complain about annoying noises so I hope for you to learn, Tony,” She said pointing him again with his pen.

_Yeah? It has to be really difficult to make parties if you didn’t have any friends._ Tony thought to himself. _Learn._ Why the rules seemed to be against him?

“I wouldn’t be able to make a party in this place, anyway,” Tony muttered to himself.

“The account number and the password already exist. One of you will have to take care of retiring the money each month for you _survival,”_ Pepper say staring at Tony.

Pepper turned the contract on the table in order for Loki and Tony to take a look. Loki was surprised once he saw the amount of money designed for each month. It had been a long time without seeing that kind of money, well, in reality he still have not seen it, but it would surely make his life easier. Even though his pride was screaming for him to not accept the money because there was no way that he, Loki Friggason, had to depend on Stark, his common sense had left it more than clear that with the salary of a part-time waiter would not be enough. How many times had he have this discussion with himself? He was sure that it would not be the last one. At last, he decided to deceive himself and say that the help was coming from Miss Potts. He could live with that.

“Yeah, yeah, food,” Tony replied quickly eyeing the contract, “So, do I sign or what?” he asked extending his hand to Pepper so she could hand him the pen.

“What? Are you not going to read it first?” Pepper asked handing him the pen.

“Nah, I trust you,” Tony replied taking it. And he was feeling lazy.

After Pepper telling him where he had to sign and Tony had left the contract on the table, Loki took it and started reading it for himself, nodding.

“What’s wrong, _Luke?_ Feeling concerned?” Tony asked smiling amused.

“Reading a contract before sign it is common sense,” Loki replied without looking up.

“He’s right, Tony,” Pepper added looking at him with disapproval.

“Uh-huh,” Tony replied walking to the fridge, took a soda from it and started drinking it.

He took two more cans and left them on the table, waiting for Loki to end his reading. Once Loki had signed where we was supposed to and had left the pen aside, Tony offered one of the cans and Loki received it.

“For a new life together,” Tony said mockingly extending his arm to Loki.

“Okay… That sounds weird,” Pepper said feeling a little bit awkward, “For a well-sealed contract,” she decided to say, hitting her can with Tony’s.

Loki held back a sigh and drew his can with the others.

_For not having to worry about starving to dead,_ he said for himself.

The three of them drank a sip from their cans and Loki wondered if he could be feeling more uncomfortable. Probably he could not.

“Want to stay for a while, Pepp? We can order something to eat,” Tony said resting his can on the table.

“I like the idea of ordering food,” she replied before drinking another sip, “ _for you._ I have matters to take care of. Besides, you two have classes tomorrow, so don’t stay up that late, okay? _”_ She said with a smile.

“Who are you, my mother?” Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

The expression that Pepper made before laughing caught Loki’s attention, and he wondered if the comment about the mother of Stark had made her feel _strange._ Maybe it had made her a little sad. _Have they met each other, sometime?_ A lot of questions raised on Loki’s mind that didn’t have any sense to ask in that moment. And most likely would never have.

“Well, guys, I’m leaving you. I will send an e-mail with a copy of the contract, so there would be no excuse to break it,” she said before standing up.

“Bye, Pepp,” Tony said before emptying his can.

“Have a good night, Miss Potts,” Loki said.

“You too,” she replied smiling.

Pepper walked to the couch and grabbed her things. She walked towards the door and turned to say one last ‘goodbye’ before exiting through the door and going down to the parking lot. Once she was in her car, she left out a breath and crossed her fingers, hoping for all of that to work and for Tony to straighten a little.

“So… did you eat? You look like someone who hadn’t eaten since lunch,” Tony said to Loki, both of them were still on the dining table.

“I am not really hungry. And I have an essay to finish,” Loki said getting up.

“No, no, no.” Tony said pushing Loki’s shoulders to get him seated again, “Money for food, remember? Now, Chinese? Do you like Chinese? You look like someone who likes Chinese.”

Loki gave him a look that read ‘seriously’?

Tony looked at him waving his hand with his cellphone on it. Loki suspired and nodded.

“Chinese, then,” Tony said dialing a number on his phone.

A while later the delivery guy had arrived and Tony had gone to get their food to the door, feeling thankful for the fast food that didn’t let him die.

It was a really silent and quiet dinner, with conversations that didn’t last more than five words each one. But, hey! Progress, it was progress!

When he finished his food, Loki had gone to throw his cardboard box to the trash can, took the laptop that was still on the table mumbling a ‘goodnight’ and had made his way to his bedroom to left it on his desk. Then, he walked towards the bathroom, where he brushed his teeth staring at the mirror with bitterness, as if he didn’t like what he was looking at. He went again to his room, put his pajama on and sat on the desk with the purpose of going on with his essay until his eyelids were heavy enough to turn the computer off and go to bed, cursing again not having had a chance to speak with Sigyn that day.

* * *

 

It was dark and just the sound of his footsteps made clear that he was not deaf. Walking without direction was the only thing he could think of in that moment, stopping would make some kind of madness to swallow him whole. It was cold. And if was not as if Loki disliked coldness, it was that the coldness reminded him how alone he was. Empty. Just like the place where he was, he did not know if he was really moving forward or if it was simply his mind making him believe that he was getting some kind of travelling. How could he know it if an impermeable darkness prevented him to see anything? Perhaps there was nothing, maybe he had gone blind, he could not know it, neither.

Loki lost count of how many steps he had walked and he ignored how much time had passed. He hugged himself while he kept on walking, desperately searching for a light, for a way out, a door, a window, a… something. Something in the infinite nothing he was trapped in.

He could feel his heart beating faster and violently, as if something inside of him knew what this was about. His breathing became more and more erratic as the time passed; or while he assumed that time was passing by, he did not have a way to know it.

Loki stopped or rather was stopped when he hit something, causing a metallic sound to exist. He instantly shut his eyes closed at the moment of the impact and, when he opened them, he could see. White. All the background was white and Loki could only distinguish the figure that impeded him to keep going, he would remember later. It only took a quick glance to the guilty of stopping his walking for Loki’s heart skipped a beat and started beating even faster, as if it wanted to leave his chest and fall to the floor. The creature looked down, finding Loki’s eyes, he felt how all his body tensed up, and started to run.

He was running as fast as he could, but the creature was quicker than him and was getting closer with every step he took, every time closer, searching for a way to reach him in the never-ending whiteness that tried to blind him more than the darkness that had been replaced. Loki ran until his body paralyzed. First he stopped being capable to move his legs, that appeared to be nailed on the floor. He turned his head and was able to see a red blur creeping its way to Loki and he knew what _desperation_ felt like. His chest went up and down at an incredible speed, while his eyes opened wider and wider and he felt his pulse hitting him like a roll of drums. Then he stopped feeling his arms and trying to shelter his face on them was useless and pointless. Loki was defenseless at the mercy of the creature that was approaching him.

Loki could feel how the creature had leap into him and everything went back to black.

“NO!!” Loki screamed opening his eyes, facing the well-known ceiling. He restrained himself to trying to move his limbs for a couple of seconds, afraid of the possibility of not being able to do it by will. Despite that, when he tried to move his left arm, Loki was successful and he supported both of his arms on the mattress until getting to a sitting position. He brought his hand to his forehead and that was when he recognized the cold sweat soaking him completely. Loki left out a breath and decided that the best thing he could do was to take a shower.

He got up from the bed after he turned on the lamp resting on his night stand, making his eyes hurt with the intensity of the light. He gave a peep to the clock on the table and noticed that it was past three in the morning. He walked to his wardrobe and drew a couple of towels and a clean pajama from it, Loki would not be able to wear the dirty one after having taken a shower.

After opening his door and getting into the bathroom, Loki started to undress himself, getting rid of the sweated clothe and thanking the water that gently slipped through his body, taking with it the dirt Loki was feeling at that instant.

It been a while since Loki had had a nightmare, or at least one that made him sweat cold. However, he was not really surprised of that happening now.

The last nightmare that Loki had experimented had also been in the apartment and his scream had succeeded at waking Sigyn up, who had crossed running the little hallway to see what was going on and, even when Loki had not wanted to tell her was had been his nightmare about, Sigyn had sat next to him and had started talking to him in an attempt of distract him. And the second to last nightmare had ended in the same way: even if Sigyn was more tired than him, she would come to his room and they would stay up talking about senseless things until one of them fell asleep; it mostly was Sigyn, and Loki would cover her with the blanket, wishing for _her_ to not have any kind of bad dreams and would stay awake until he could not take it anymore (usually the alarm would ring minutes later). And now… now he had no one to stay up until inhuman hours to keep him distracted to the world of his nightmares, which were still fresh on his mind. Now he had to share the same ceiling with _Stark_ , who was selfish, whimsical, annoying and an endless amount of things that Loki was too tired to article, even in his mind.

Loki went out from the bathroom with the clean pajama covering his body and a towel on his neck, responsible of absorbing the water falling from his hair. He walked towards the kitchen and he saw a shadow that called his attention.

“Stark?” Loki asked at the person seated on one of the chairs of the little kitchen table, with a glass of water on his hands looking through one of the windows.

“Hey, _Luke_ ,” he replied acknowledging his presence.

Loki rolled his eyes to the nickname.

“What are you doing here?” Loki asked walking to the shelf next to the fridge and took a glass from it.

 “Nothing,” Tony replied with a shrug, “I just wanted to watch the beautiful landscape drinking a refreshing glass of water,” he added lifting his glass.

“Of course,” Loki said moving to the fridge.

“And you? Did you decide that three in the morning was the perfect moment for a shower?” Tony asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Exactly,” Loki replied opening the fridge and filling his glass with milk.

“Hey…” Tony said leaving the glass on the table again.

“Hm?” He replied closing the fridge and taking a sip. Nothing better than something cold for his damaged throat.

“I heard you scream, is everything all right?”

The question took Loki for surprise, who supported his left arm on the worktop, holding the glass with his right hand. Loki drank a gulp before replying.

“None of your business.”

“Ah,” –he said looking at his glass.

There was a silence that broke time to time when they drank asynchronously from their glasses. Loki questioned himself if it had been worth the pain to grab a glass of milk.

“You’re always saying that,” Tony said breaking the silence completely, without looking away from his glass.

“I beg your pardon?” Loki asked looking at him.

“That is not my business. Like I can’t be worried,” Tony replied giving the look back, “If you think that telling me that is going to stop me or desist, I have bad news for you. If we’re living together, maybe you shouldn’t try to tear out my throat every time you see me, don’t you think so?

“Not that I am living with you by pleasure,” Loki muttered reluctantly.

“Oh, don’t you start with that,” Tony said with a grimace, “If you wanted to keep searching you’d have done it. I’m sure.”

“I don’t like you, do you know that?” Loki said raising an eyebrow.

“You had made that clear.”

A new silence took possession of the apartment. Tony told himself that if had been better had he brought the glass of water to his room or simply not having asked, even if he was doing it by mere curiosity. Moreover, he could do something as simple as getting up from the table, leave the glass in the sink, walk to his room and leave Loki alone. Why would he care if Loki had a nightmare? Why _should_ he care, anyway? Even though he couldn’t find a reason, it was obvious that between them there were some unresolved issues and Tony wouldn’t get anything if he acted like an idiot. Besides, it was kinda true that Tony hadn’t left other option for Loki than to accept him between his walls, even when it was evident that Loki didn’t like Tony, despite Loki telling him to not know him. Tony sighed and recognize that there was only a thing he could do at that situation.

Loki was wondering if Hel had been frozen. _Stark_ worrying about him? Ha! Maybe Loki hadn’t woke up still and something worst was coming.

“Is everything okay?” Tony asked softly.

Loki jumped a little when he heard Stark’s voice low and almost inaudible, that interrupted his thoughts and brought him back to the world. Loki stared at him wanting to convince himself that his worried tone was false. _Maybe Hel is frozen._

“Yes,” Loki replied desiring to leave the place.

“Is an everyday thing you waking up screaming at three a.m.?”

Loki knew that Stark was going to keep asking until Loki told him or explode and screamed at him. And Loki did not have enough energy to execute a verbal fight, nor even to think about good comebacks, also, his throat would not bear to shout again. He was tired. So he decided to just give up, but he would not admit he was accepting a defeat.

“I had a nightmare,” he finally said.

Loki’s voice surprised Tony, who was more than sure that he wouldn’t get any answer to his question. In fact, he had anticipated to see Loki disappear in the corridor towards his bedroom. Perhaps it was that Loki didn’t want to go back to his bed after a nightmare.

“A really ugly one, for what I see,” he said pointing the chair in front of him.

“Yes,” Loki replied taking the chair pointed. He didn’t have the intention to go back to his bedroom, and he body felt tired, anyway.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about that, but my mom used to say that telling a nightmare was the best you can do to forget it.”

“Mother used to say that, too,” Loki said smiling unconsciously to the memory on his mind, “But I would rather not doing it so,” Loki replied going back to his serious face.

And the thing was, Loki had not even told Sigyn one of his nightmares with detail. So, what kind of right did _Stark_ had to know about his life?

Tony felt kinda perplexed, was Loki able to _smile?_ Or maybe was his sleepy mind playing tricks with him, he couldn’t trust his tired mind.

“It’s okay,” Tony said before drinking a sip, “You know? Once I dreamt about a guy dressed up like a dinosaur in my house that made me wear a tutu and stole my food,” he added with a smile.

Loki, having a vivid imagination that worked better than him in that instant, projected a clear image on his mind of Stark wearing a tutu, serving food to a hungry man in a dinosaur costume and the nonsensical of it made a little giggle escape from Loki’s mouth and it caught Tony’s attention.

“Hey! You know how to laugh, too?” Tony asked pointing him with his glass.

“Who does not enjoy a good laugh?” Loki asked with a yawn.

“I haven’t heard you laugh before, uh.”

“Oh, that must be because you are boring,” Loki said resting his arms on the table and his head on them.

“FYI, people think I’m really funny,” Tony replied with feign indignation.

“Of course.”

Tony found himself smiling.

“What others strange dreams have you had?” Loki asked hesitantly, simply searching for a distraction. In moments like that Loki could not bear with silence and he did not feel like going back to his bedroom.

“Hmm…” Tony said thoughtfully, scratching softy his chin, “Oh! Once…”

Loki found himself enjoying the stories that Stark was telling him. Probably later Loki would regret being so weak to accept the distraction offered by Stark, but at the instant the only thing that matters for him was to not have to think about the nightmares tormenting him.

Bit by bit their voices turned to whispers and their eyelids turned heavier, until that what had been two people talking in the darkness on the kitchen table ended up being two people who would wake up with a neck ache and feeling cold due to falling asleep in the kitchen.

* * *

 

“ _Sir, I inform you that if you do not wake up at this instant it would be impossible for you to get to classes on time,”_ Tony heard being said from the table.

“Jesus, Jarvis, what makes you wake me up so early?” He asked without wanting to open his eyes.

“ _Sir, it is almost half past seven.”_

Tony quickly lifted his head when he heard the time, how could it be that late?

“Why didn’t you try to wake me up before!?” Tony complained to the Starkphone on his hand.

_“I have been trying before seven o’clock, sir.”_

“Oh, great!” Tony said standing up. Then he acknowledged Loki, still sleeping on the table, “ _Luke_! Hey! Wake up!” he shouted shaking him softy.

“Hmmm… Go ahead, Thor.”

Tony locked at him puzzled.

“Wake up! We’re running late! And who the fuck is Thor?” Tony asked moving him more abruptly.

“I am awake!” Loki replied breaking away from the table with a little jump. “What?” Loki asked confused at seeing Tony in front of him.

“You, it’s late. Get up and go change your clothes,” Tony said to him, walking to his own bedroom.

Loki got up and walked towards the bathroom. Tony was putting his neck through a t-shirt when he saw Loki about to open the door.

“What’re you doing?” Tony asked sliding the t-shirt on his torso.

“I want to take a shower—”

“You took one last night! No time! Go and get dressed!” Tony complained sitting on his undone bed.

“I am going?” Loki said uncertain walking to his bedroom. Seeing that Loki, not like Stark, did not feel the necessity of exhibit himself around the world, closed his bedroom door and exited minutes later with a green t-shirt, skinny jeans, black sneakers, his cellphone in his pocket and his backpack on the shoulder.

“Ready? Let’s go,” Tony said from the living room, clearly waiting for Loki to appear.

“What?” Loki asked muddled.

“Car, Uni, it’s late…” Tony said irritated.

Loki looked at him confused.

“There’s no way in hell that you get on time!” Tony said to him, walking to the door, “C’mon!”

“There is no way that I get inside a car with you!” Loki answered stubbornly, “I do not need you.”

“What? Are you fucking kidding me? No time, Pepper’s gonna kill me if I keep getting late,” Tony complained running his hand through his hair, “Move!”

Loki stood still on the point where he was, almost defying him with his eyes.

Tony definitely _didn’t_ have time for that. So he approached Loki, grabbed one of his wrists and made with walk outside the apartment. Tony closed the door with his free hand, thanking it was not possible to open it from the outside without the keys, and he practically jumped the stairs to the first floor, still pulling Loki from his wrist, who was demanding to be left alone and tried to break free from his grip.

When they were able to see where Tony had his car parked, he grabbed his keys and opened the co-pilot door before they arrived.

“If you don’t get inside, I’m going to push you,” Tony said unsmiling.

“Fine,” Loki answered coldly, seating on the leather seat.

Tony closed the door and let out a breath, crossing to the driver’s side of the car. He opened the door and slid his body on the seat, quickly turning on the engine.

He mumbled senseless things under his breath while he speeded up without looking at the indicator. He didn’t even care that much about getting on time, but he didn’t like the deception on Pepper’s eyes when she scolded him about something. And he didn’t want to put her job as Howard’s assistant in danger, either, he knew that she liked her job.

“You _do_ know there is a speed limit that you are exceeding, yes?” Loki asked looking at him with a frown when they stopped in a red light.

“Do you see any cop nearby? Because I don’t,” Tony answered looking at him for an instant.

“Are you always this neglectful?” Loki questioned with anger.

“Oh! Guess what! It’s _none_ of your business!” Tony replied almost losing his shit. So, he does something good for someone and that’s the reward? Another reason to be an asshole. Plus, why would he care if Loki got or not on time to his classes? Tony’d had left him in the apartment. _“Don’t wanna get in the fucking car?_ Bien _, good for you. Good luck with public transport.”_ It would’ve been way easier.

“It is if you are endangering my life.”

“I’m a good driver,” Tony said turning on a curve.

“Is that you or your money talking?” Loki asked touching his seat.

“You make me angry, you know that?” –Tony questioned making the grip on the steering wheel stronger.

“Good! Now we have something in common.”

“Why is so difficult for you to receive help, anyway?” Tony asked after some minutes of silence.

“What are you talking about?” Loki asked with his eyebrows knitted together.

“Because I could’ve bring you to MIT every day, plus now you’re angry for I-don’t-know-what,” Tony said looking at the road. At least he didn’t have to use Jarvis this time.

“I do not need your help,” Loki replied looking to the window.

“See? That’s what I meant.”

Loki decided to keep his silence.

Tony asked himself why Loki had to be so bipolar. They were getting along last night, right? Why everything changed in the morning? Maybe Loki had some kind of sickness, voodoo, spell, thing that made him behave different from day to night and Loki wasn’t sure if he could dealt with something like that. The crazy to the madhouse.

“Are you always this bipolar?” Tony asked after another couple of minutes filled with silence, when they were really close to MIT.

“’Bipolar’?” Loki asked without turning.

“Last night… you laughed, didn’t you?” Tony asked confused. What was the probability of everything being just a dream? But they had had woke up in the kitchen, and it was very likely that Jarvis would be able to verify it. So…?

Loki felt weak. Weaker than what he had felt in a long time. Having to appeal for his help once was too much. Twice was chaotic. Who did he think he was? A damsel in distress who needed aid? He did not even remember him, how dare he to insinuate aspects from his personality? Loki could feel anger growing inside of him. Anger towards Stark and towards himself.

“You do _not_ even know me,” Loki answered when they had already made their way into the enclosure, and Tony was searching for a place on the parking lot.

“I’m trying,” he said going to an empty space.

“Yes, evidently,” Loki replied unclasping his security belt.

“I’m talking seriously,” Tony said stopping the car. Why was so difficult for him to believe? It wasn’t a completely lie, neither, Tony did want to know him; the curiosity of wanting to know why he was so hated was eating him alive.

“Just leave me alone,” Loki said opening the door and getting out hurriedly from the car.

Loki walked swiftly to where his next class would take place. Why did he have decide to take a shower at three in the morning? Why had he not being able to take his damned cellphone to the kitchen? That way he would have heard his alarm and he would not have had to come with him. He would not had have to tolerate that anguish and he would had have to have breakfast. Gods, he was starving and there was no time to eat something before the class. But, why would he take his cellphone if he was just planning to drink a glass of milk and try to go back to sleep? Although the world ‘trying’ was there for no reason, because it would have been impossible to sleep in that bedroom. Did it all come down to this? He wouldn’t allow it. Besides, who did he thought he was with his ‘I am trying to know you’? That they would be the best friends, tell every secret and live happily ever after? Gods, no.

“Hey! Wait! _Luke!”_ Speaking of the devil, he screamed approaching him.

“Do you know?” Loki said still walking, “I thought you were smart but, seeing that you are not capable of remember a two-syllable name, I am not that sure anymore. And I was starting to ask myself why you were at MIT when your brain is not qualified to retain a simple and small name. Then I thought that it could be because you are Stark’s son and everything made sense. However, that is aside the point. The point is that if you cannot even remember my name, do not try to use it and, please, restrain yourself from trying to call me.”

Tony had to admit it, he was impressed by that response. And, hell, emotions! Yes, it was rage, but it was an emotion, nonetheless. And he couldn’t blame his imagination or his tired mind because he was really awake and about to scream with laughter, until his mind connected everything Loki had said and he could help but let out a triumphal smile.

“I knew you knew me!”

“Agh, please! How would I not known you if your last name is written on the back of almost every phone in this place? Sadly, the company is nearly as big as your ego.”

“So, why did you say you didn’t know me?”

“It does not matter. What do you want?” He said before Tony could talk.

“Uhm… you left your phone in the car,” Tony answered taking it from his pocket and offering it to Loki.

Loki stopped his walking to sharply take the phone from Tony.

“Thanks,” was said before Loki started walking again.

Tony walked on the contrary direction, towards the classroom waiting for him, wondering what the fuck had happened. Though he was sure about some things. Like Loki knowing about him.

Besides, he had realized something important.

Still walking, Tony took his phone from his pocket and started writing a quick message that would be sent to Bruce.

**_He does have an iPhone. –T._ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hello~ I really enjoyed writing this chapter~  
> I hope for you to like it c:!


	6. Café

**_So, what I'm supposed to do with that info? –B._ **

Tony looked at the screen of his phone for a moment while the teacher was explaining stuff on the board before replying. _Which class was this?_

**You asked; I answer. –T.**

He waited for some minutes and the device vibrated over his notebook. He put his pencil case in front of it, he wasn't that disrespectful to be calmly texting in the middle of a lecture. He wasn't on the back row to do it so. Besides arriving late, the only available seat was one almost at the front of the classroom. Such a lucky guy.

**_So you know he doesn't know you. –B._ **

Tony held his laugh at Bruce's response. Maybe the best way to discover something was letting Loki without sleep a good couple of hours and interrogate him later. He should, at least, try.

**Quite the contrary, in a rage attack he confessed to know me. –T.**

He wrote the response with something close to a triumphal smile. Oh, there was nothing better than being right with a prediction. Well, there were better things, but the taste of satisfaction it left in him was pretty cool. Plus, it was an 'I told you so' to Bruce.

Tony waited some minutes that were used to write a couple of things on his notebook until he got a new message.

**_So you know he knows you, happy now? Going back to your house? –B._ **

Tony almost rolled his eyes at such sentence, then he remembered that doing it would call the attention of few people. And it wasn't as if he didn't enjoy attention. He was Tony Stark and the attention was really important, but in that moment he didn't feel like explaining he was talking with his best friend about a guy who he practically had obliged to live with him. Er… that sounded a little bit weird, didn't it?

**What are you talking about? I finally confirmed that he knows me, now I need to find out how we met and why he hates me. –T.**

**_You do have a problem. Can't hear me but I'm sighing. –B._ **

The image of Bruce sighing while rolling his eyes was vivid on Tony's mind, as if he was looking at him at that very moment. It was that seeing Bruce that way for something –foolishness, according to Bruce- that Tony did was really common. Tony actually counted the times he made it when they were on high school. When they were at the same time, it scored more points.

**Be tranquil, Brucie. But if I get sued for kidnap attempt, you have to know that's a fake denounce. –T.**

He waited with a mischievous smile on his lips. Though he didn't had time to write a single word, the reply got really fast.

**_What does that mean? –B._ **

Before he'd write something, a new message appeared on his screen.

**_Tony, really, what did you do? –B._ **

It was kinda funny how much Bruce worried about the stupid things Tony did. It didn't matter what the situation was, Tony had Bruce to anticipate the consequences that he'd ignore until realizing that Bruce was right. And, despise that, Bruce was willing to help him getting of problems, even when he was complaining about the aftermaths where he was involved, Bruce did everything that was possible to help him.

Tony smiled for himself before replying.

**Stop distracting me, d'you know I'm in class? Your constant messages impede mi learning. –T.**

**_Yeah, sure. –B._ **

Tony left the cellphone resting on the table, next to his notebook while he took notes about what the teacher was saying, of that was what he'd tell Pepper that he was doing, when he was more focused on making a doodle of a little Loki sleeping on a table.

Some minutes passed by before the phone vibrated again on the desk.

**_Hey, answer me. –B._ **

Tony exhaled through his nose while smiled amused. If that called the attention of someone or not, Tony wasn't able to detect it. And he didn't even care.

**Classes. –T.**

**_I hate you. –B._ **

Tony sent a heart emoticon to Bruce and put his cellphone on his pocket when he realized that it wouldn't vibrate again. He decided to come back to take notes of the contents, and wondered why the hell he was using a copybook if he could use something digital until he remembered that it was easier to make senseless drawings on the corner of a notebook rather than to open a program to doodle in it.

His stomach roared* loudly and he decided that the first recess would be used to eat something. He wasn't even able to drink a coffee in the morning, fucking insomnia. Fucking schedule.

* * *

Loki was trying with all his might to keep himself concentrated in the class, but his attention was almost completely on his empty stomach that was demanding to be feed someway.

He cursed not being prepared and not having even a biscuit inside his backpack. With all the hurry of the morning, he had not be able to take not even a miserable apple from the kitchen. Damned Stark.

He exited hi class when he heard the bell indicating the end of the period and he walked with large footsteps towards the closer café, which was not surprisedly enough a Starbucks. Loki waited in the line until ordering an _Espresso Macchiato_ and a chocolate brownie, what? He did deserve it. Ad he could afford it. Besides, he needed to awake completely.

When he already had his order on his hands, Loki walked until the table he had put the eye on when he realized it was empty. He decided to take the risk and send a message to Sigyn before taking a sip of the delicious coffee. While he took a bite from the brownie and delighted himself with the chocolate on his mouth, the cellphone vibrated on the table, indicating the presence of a new message.

**Hey, you. How have you been? –S.**

Loki smiled feeling relief, at least Sigyn had time.

**_I thought I asked you first. –L._ **

**I'm fine, and you? –S.**

The shortness of the answer made that Loki wonder some things. Was everything really okay?

**_Are you sure?_** **_–_** ** _L._**

Loki waited some minutes feeling weird. Obviously they could not talk about meaningful things through texting, but even so…

Loki cursed the moment he decided to look what time it was, the bell which would end with the recess was about to ring at any second. He sighed before typing quickly.

**_I am sorry, I need to go to classes. Can we talk when I get home? We could make a video-call. –L._ **

**Sounds good. I'll be waiting. –S.**

Loki put the phone in his pocket, trying to ignore the feeling on his chest. It was not as if he was stupid, he knew that Sigyn had things to be worried about and it was really impersonal to talk about important things through text messages which took an eternity to get to their destiny, but… he didn't like having to wait to talk with her. And she was the only person Loki could talk to.

Loki stood up and started walking towards the classroom where his next class was, with the coffee on his hand. There was still a bit left and he could finish it on his not-assigned seat.

At the end of an exhausting and unexciting school day, Loki walked quickly to the exit, wanting to get as sooner as possible to the apartment, silently thanking Amora for giving them the day off. He did not even want to know if she had or had not the authority to do that, Loki just cared about getting home earlier, connect his computer and being able to speak with Sigyn. He didn't even think about the possibility of Stark being at the apartment while he was having such a craved conversation.

Luckily for him, Loki found the apartment empty when he crossed the front door and thanked the welcoming silence.

He walked towards his room, to avoid a certain egoistical from interrupting him while Loki was focused talking with Sigyn, and he threw his backpack to the bed, he would tidy up his room later, it was not that important.

Loki sat on the chair in front of the desk and hurriedly turned on his computer, waiting for it to arrange, hoping that Sigyn was already in her bedroom, with her computer lying on the mattress and her seating with her legs crossed, covered with a sweater or a blanket on her shoulders, surfing around some blog while she waited for Loki to connect. When the program opened, Loki realized, satisfied, that Sigyn was online and he decided to talk to her.

"Hello," he said with a small smile, looking at the girl, who was just like Loki had pictured her.

"Hey, shouldn't you be working?" Sigyn asked smiling.

"No. Amora wants to decorate the café, you know, Halloween and that kind of stuff, and she did not want for us to help her because we would be hindering, according to her," he replied shaking his head, with a bigger smile, "Maybe I will go to help her tomorrow, anyways."

"Halloween?" she asked really confused. Neither Loki nor Sigyn had celebrate it while they had been living together.

"She wants to attract more customers with that. Even with costumes and such things."

"Er… what kind of costumes?" She asked raising an eyebrow. Loki immediately understood the message hidden behind the gesture, Amora was a… peculiar creature.

"Average, I guess. I hope," he commented, earning a chuckle from Sigyn.

"With the face you have now, a zombie one would really suit you."

"You would also be like this if you—" Loki stopped midway when he realized what he was saying, his smiled fading slowly.

"If I…" She invited him to continue.

Loki didn't want to reply. He didn't want to worry her, although he knew it was useless trying to hide it from her, he could say by her gaze that Sigyn knew exactly what he was referring to. Her expression screamed worry, there was no need to be a genius to realize that, it was a matter of seeing her. Gods, why Loki had to be so stupid? Drinking the coffee to be completely awake had been not really fruitful. When had he lost his capacity to think clearly?

"Did you have a nightmare?" Sigyn asked ending the silence that had extend for too long.

"Something like that. I do not remember what was it about, but it took me a lot going back to sleep," he decided to lie. What was the point on telling Sigyn about the content of his nightmare? That would only make that Sigyn got more worried and he would have to remember the horrible feeling that ran through his body.

"That explains your face."

"Come on, you had seen me worse," Loki commented with a smile, trying to leave the matter aside.

However, that simple sentence brought memories to his mind, the kind of he would have preferred to forget. Yes, it was true, Sigyn had seen him after days without sleep, after days without coming out from his room. It was not as if Sigyn had met him at his _best_ moment. And Loki knew that the same memories went to Sigyn's mind when she looked a little bit doubtful about what she should say and he wondered if she had reproached herself about having commented how tired Loki looked. He hoped not.

"For the final exams," she finally said after some moment of silence.

"Yes. When we studied together, you used to fall asleep before me," he replied with a smile.

"'Before you'? Sometimes you didn't even sleep. I passed the tests without collapsing on them."

"Ah, youth," Loki said letting go a breath.

"Don't act as if you were old," Sigyn crossed her arms.

"You cannot feign that you are mad with a smile on your face," Loki said widening his smile. Ah, how he missed talking with Sigyn. He was sure she would have softly punch him on the arm if they had been face to face.

"True, true," She said letting her arms on her legs, "So, how are things with your _dear_ roommate?"

"Good, good, he is really a mess, you should see his room, oh, he tried to kidnap me in his car, he drives too carelessly, ah, and he already knows that we meet at some point."

"Did you tell him? Wait, 'kidnap'?" Sigyn asked puzzled.

"I fell asleep, he insisted on us going there together, I said no, he threw me to his car; I was sleepy, I was frustrated and angry. Then, BAM! I told him a couple of things about him," Loki said, ending with a sigh.

"What kind of things?"

"Basically I told him that the reason why he was at MIT was due to his father and not because of his stupid, incapable of remembering my name, brain."

"Wait, did you lose your temper due to the nickname?" She asked holding a smile.

"Does it have something funny?" Loki asked with a frown. Why Sigyn felt amused with the situation?

"I'm sorry, I could have imagined a lot of scenarios where you would lose it, but that being due to your name…"

"It bothers me. He does not remember me, appears out of nowhere, ruins my peace and has the nerve to forget my name."

"Are you planning to tell him?" Sigyn asked, regaining some of her seriousness.

"No!" he claimed energetically "Why would I choose to humiliate myself in that way? If he does not remember, it's for the best. Less issues to care about."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course. I do not care in the slightest."

"Hmmm, right."

"And what does that mean?" Loki asked raising an eyebrow.

"It matters so little that you hare here, complaining about that," she said thoughtfully, making Loki to look at her, seeking for an explanation. But before he could think about one, Sigyn talked again, "Not that I can blame you."

"Sometimes I hate that you know me so well, Sigyn," Loki sighed dejected.

"I know," she replied with a radiant smile, "But there has to be something good."

"I do not longer need to worry about starving," Loki said with a little smile.

"And at least you got to classes in time. He had a good intention, didn't he?" the blonde asked tentatively.

Loki's smile faded away quickly.

"I do not need his help."

"I know. And I do understand," Sigyn's smile stood there, "Just… don't get carried by your emotions, okay? You have come really far leaving the past behind, why should you focus in it now?"

"That is true. I should not forget what is really important," he replied forcing a smile, hoping to convince Sigyn.

And it was that he still had some things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell Sigyn that it was impossible to see Stark's face without wanting to punch him. However, he knew that trying it would not end with good results. Both things. Telling everything to Sigyn nor punching Stark. And it was really frustrating. Both things. Maybe the first one was more frustrating, it almost felt like lying to Sigyn and faking at her side. Front, in reality, because he could not be by her side.

Loki decided that it was better to leave the matter aside and asked Sigyn some question, making the conversation to be completely about her. It was way better than having to think what to say every five seconds.

Everything was going well until Loki's phone started to ring insistently.

"Gods, this thing does not shut up," Loki said hanging the call for the third time.

"Do you know who it is?"

"No, it is an unknown number," he replied showing her the phone screen through the camera.

The cellphone began to ring again and Loki had the urge to throw it from the window. Or turn it off.

"Maybe you should pick it, if it's so insistent, it could be something important," Sigyn suggested.

"Okay," he replied sliding his finger on the green button placed on the screen, "Hello?"

"Oh, you finally picked the call!" exclaimed the voice at the other side of the line, "I tried to call, I don't know, thirty times."

"Stark?" Loki asked gaining a curious gaze from Sigyn. Maybe turning the phone off would not have been a bad idea.

"Oh, yeah, that's my name."

* * *

Tony was outside the well-known door and opened it to get inside.

He could notice how empty the place felt, it was as if decades had happened since someone had walked inside and not just few weeks. It even felt colder than outside, thought that could be due to the ceramic floor. Whatever the way it was, Tony didn't like the feeling of being there. Not in that way.

"Jarvis. Protocol home, sweet home," he commanded once he had closed the door and had threw his stuff on the sofa.

" _Immediately, sir,"_ was all that was needed to say before the lights turned on and Tony felt how Jarvis took control of the house. Seconds later the stereo started to work and the silence had been replaced by music.

"Much better, huh?" He commented walking to his bar.

Maybe it wasn't a really good idea to stark drinking if he had to drive later, so he decided to simple open a soda from the fridge.

" _Certainly, sir."_

"As if you could really feel."

" _I was talking about you, sir. Silence does not suit you well."_

_"_ No need to say it," Tony spoke before taking a sip from his soda.

He felt a metallic noise in his room that was growing more every time as it came closer to where he was. Tony recognized Dum-E's wheels sliding on the floor.

"Hey, you," he said leaving his can on the table, "Come here."

Dum-E started to move and was about to throw a couple of glasses that were placed on a table until Tony made him stop and he walked toward the machine.

"I seriously need to make you some settings," Tony commented moving to the table, in order to make sure that there wouldn't be need to clean broken pieces of glass from the floor. Nor wood.

He walked around Dum-E a couple of times while the robot's claw followed every one of his movements.

"I wonder if you fit through the apartment door," Tony said scratching his beard, "Jarvis."

" _Sir?"_

"Do you have any way to tell me the measures of the apartment?" He asked walking to his room. It was just the way he had left it, messy and with few of his things.

" _I only would be able to make some approximations, sir."_

"Hum…"

Tony exited the room with a measuring tape. He approached Dum-E and started telling the measures to Jarvis.

"Jarvis, do we have the phone number of Luke, I mean, _Loki it bothers me when people change my name_?" he asked seating in one of the chairs, with Dum-E following his steps. It was pure lucky that his feet didn't end up crushed, "Hey, be careful."

" _The possibility of get it with Miss Potts is quite high, sir."_

"Pepper, right," Tony recognized touching his forehead with the screwdriver, "Jarvis, send a message to Pepper."

" _What do you want it to say in it, sir?"_

"What do I know? Hm, something like 'Hey, Pepp, I need Loki's number'" he ordered before taking the screwdriver and tighten a couple of Dum-E's screws. Literally it had loosen screws, eh, "That's what happens when you're clashing stuff around," he complained.

_"_ _The response given by Miss Potts is asking for reasons, sir,"_ Jarvis replied after some minutes.

A couple of excuses and a call later, Tony had Loki's number and had told Jarvis to dial it.

The tone ringed a couple of time before the wanna-be-call hanged. Tony damned and tried again. And again, obtaining the same aftermath.

"Oh, God. Maybe Pepper gave me the wrong number? Argh, why he doesn't pick it?" Tony asked to the air, combing his hair back with his free hand. Why there was people who had phone if they were unable to answer it?

After some more tries -because it was impossible for Tony to give up- he got an answer.

"Stark?"

"Oh, yeah, that's my name, don't waste it," he answered smiling. Thought maybe it had been too stupid to start that way. Now that Loki knew it was him, he could end the call and don't answer it again.

"Well, shit," he said frustrated.

Tony tried to call again and after a while, he succeeded.

"What do you want?" Loki asked exasperated. Luckily for Tony, Loki had not turned off his phone.

"Calm down. I need a favor." He replied with a tranquil voice.

"A favor?" Loki asked sceptic. Tony imagined him raising an eyebrow. He wasn't that far from reality, anyway.

"Can you measure the door, please?" Tony asked softly.

"Why would I do that?"

"'Cause you're a good person?" he tried to convince him, "You are, right?"

"Yes, sure. I do not have the meanings to do it," Loki replied after a moment. Tony wondered if he was saying it just because he didn't want to do it.

"Uh, what a fortuneless turn of events," Tony said almost for himself, "Thank you, anyway."

Tony decided to leave the 'I guess' for himself.

"Goodbye," was what he got as a response before the call ended again.

That meant the he'd have to do it by himself. And he could have gone in that precise moment, take the measures and come back. But, on the other hand, it was getting late, and he knew that there was an open bottle of scotch that wouldn't last so much in that state and it was Friday… So he would go the day after to solve that. He supposed.

* * *

Tony got up from the sofa when Jarvis' voice had become unbearable and he knew that the best way of getting his daily energy was making coffee. A good dose of strong coffee. Did the coffee patch already exist? Maybe he should work in something like that. Though it'd mean not being able to enjoy the taste, which would be a shame. With the coffee burning his throat Tony walked to the front door and exited the house after telling Jarvis to not do something extravagant until he returned.

Once he got to the apartment Tony noticed that he had forgot the keys at the house and he cursed himself loudly while he exited the car, he hoped that Loki was still on the place. Please.

Tony knocked the door a couple of times until it opened and he could see Loki in pajamas. He wondered in what kind of state was himself, because he hadn't even bother to see himself on a mirror before going out. Well, who cared?

"Tell me you did not lose your keys in a ditch," Loki said walking from the door.

"How funny. Nice pajama," Tony replied closing it and taking off his jacket.

"Nice shirt," Loki said sitting at the table on the kitchen, in front of a couple of toasts and a coffee.

Tony noticed that his shirt had some grease stains. What time was when he fell asleep? What time was it now, anyway? He threw a glance to the clock on the wall and realized it was only eight a.m. why had Jarvis woken him so early? Probably to tell him to go sleeping at his bed. Or something like that. Maybe he should have paid more attention to what Jarvis was telling him when he woke him up.

"You always get up this early on weekends?" Tony asked feeling curious. He couldn't know it, because the last weekend he had slept until midday. The aftermath of staying awake until dawn with his tablet.

"Do you always got out on Fridays and come back in this state?" Loki asked before taking a sip from his coffee.

" _Touché."_

Tony gave a look to Loki's breakfast. It looked really good. Had Tony eaten something the day before? He didn't remember. Probably he hadn't.

He got carried away by his instincts and stole a toast from Loki's plate.

"Hey!" he exclaimed looking at him furiously. Tony smiled.

"Thank you," he said before giving it a bit, "Hey, this is really good."

"When was the last time you had a decent breakfast?" Loki asked almost in a whisper, softening a little bit his countenance, while Tony kept chewing.

"Sorry?" Tony asked after shallowing.

"Nothing," Loki replied turning his gaze again.

Tony knew it was better not to pressure him. After all, he had stolen food from Loki and he was still alive. There wasn't a motive to risk himself. Plus, he had come back from another reason.

So he walked towards the door and took the measuring tape from his pocket. He was about to dictate the numbers until he remembered that Loki didn't know anything about Jarvis. Maybe he would think that it was like Siri, but once again he decided to be prudent and went to his room in order to search for a notebook and a pen. It was easier than explaining.

When he had the table measures, he moved to the wall in front of the couch in the living room and repeated the process.

Tony hated silence, he had always hated it, so he supposed that the best thing he could do was to connect his earphones to his cellphone while he made his task.

Loki was dedicating to finish his breakfast, giving him occasional looks. Because he was intrigued. He wanted to know the reason why Stark was walking from here to there measuring walls and halls, mumbling a couple of things while he wrote on his notebook.

When his breakfast was over and he had finished washing the dishes that were used, Loki knew there was not motive or him to be in the kitchen anymore. So he went to his room to grab clean clothes and then to the bathroom, where he took a quick shower and got dressed, a long-sleeved green shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. It was starting to get cold, so opting for a jacket seemed like the most appropriate idea.

One he got out from his bedroom, he encountered the one in front of his, looking even more chaotic. Loki avoided sighing at watching the scene and he knew what was about to happen.

"Hey, Loki. Have you seen my tablet? I can't find it anywhere," he asked disarranging more the room, Loki was surprised about that being possible.

"I have," Loki said his response walking through the hallway.

"Really?" The brunet asked following Loki to the kitchen, with hope in his eyes. Maybe he feared to have left it in a place where he wouldn't be able to have it back.

"Yes."

Not that Loki cared too much, so he chose to not comment anything while he walked closer to the fruit dish and took an apple. He stored it in his backpack and Tony spoke again.

"You know where it is or you only saw it?" He asked confused. Why wasn't Loki giving him any solid response?

"I know where it is," the black-haired replied opening the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

"And you don't plan to tell me?" Tony asked really frustrated. God, what did Loki gain with this ambiguity? What was his problem? Probable _he_ was his problem, Tony thought almost rolling his eyes.

"Have you seen your room yet?" Loki decided to ask, putting the bottle inside of this backpack. The fridge was closed now.

"Yeah, you saw me searching in there," the brunet replied exasperatedly, "You know where it is? Yes or no?"

"I know, that is not what I mean," Loki said searching for his keys.

"So…?" Tony asked almost taking his hands to his face.

"Have you seen the _state_ of your room?"

Loki found his keys on the worktop, next to the coffee maker.

"' _The state'?_ " Tony asked feeling more confused. Loki gave him a look, "Oh, yeah, it a little bit messy?" He offered tentatively.

" _A_ _little bit._ " Loki replied. Tony could feel the sarcasm.

"What does my room have to do with my tablet? Wait," he closed his mouth for a couple of seconds before pointing the other guy in the room with his index finger, "You have it," he concluded.

"Indeed," the green-eyed boy affirmed, trying to hide a grin.

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"I am motivating you to clean your room. It is needed," Loki answered before closing his backpack.

"You know I can track the place where you left it, right?" Tony tried to threat crossing his arms.

"Oh, really? Do you, also, have the tech to open a lock without its key?" the black-haired asked smiling.

Tony had to admit it, he was impressed. Impressed and pissed. Hell, why the fuck had he went to go living there? *

"I should've suppose you wouldn't give me all the apartment keys," The brow-eyed let out a sigh running his hand through his hair.

"I am no fool," he replied with a shrug.

"But I'm in the middle of a project!" Tony complained. There no way in hell Tony would waste the day cleaning his stupid room. It was easier to call someone who did it.

"Such a pity," Loki said without feeling it.

Tony exhaled heavily and decided to let it pass. It wasn't giving up, it was postponing a victory. He didn't have time. He could survive some days without his tablet. At least his cellphone hadn't been taken, that would've been more painful. What was this, was he grounded? He had never been grounded for cleaning his room before. He wouldn't let Loki enjoy this too much, he would've to pretend he didn't care even in the slightest about his tablet.

"Whatever. I'll be out a couple of days."

However, Tony hoped that his precious tablet were on a save place.

"I thought that was what you were doing," Loki said sliding one of the straps on his left shoulder, "Leave the door closed when you get out. Be careful with locking yourself out," he recommended walking to the door.

Loki left the apartment and Tony cursed him silently. He _had_ to take the babysitter role seriously. He could see how much the black-haired was enjoying it.

"Jarvis," Tony spoke once he was sure that Loki had left the place, "Coordinates. Now."

" _As you wish, sir."_

After some minutes, Tony was facing Loki's wardrobe and he knew that it was so much for his investigation about the matter. Who knew what kind of things could be found behind those doors? His curiosity was at its top, but a part of him believed that Loki knew the exact order of every single thing in there. And other part of him only wanted to keep assembling and disassembling Dum-E, so he decided to just exit the room.

He walked to the kitchen and left a measure tape in one of the drawers. One could never one when that kind of stuff could be useful. And he would've a reason to bother the black-haired. Everyone won!

He made sure to have everything he needed from the apartment before exiting through the door. How sad it was that the door couldn't be open from outside without the keys. Though if that was the case, Loki would've to wait for Tony to get out before leaving, so they could left the apartment locked and the whereabouts of his sequestrated tablet would still be unknown.

Tony got in the car and drove to his ex? house.

When he arrived, he entered almost slamming the door. Yes, he was pissed. Not even Howard had grounded him for not organizing his room. Well, it wasn't as if Howard had cared about the state of Tony or his stuff. While he didn't need to interfere, Howard didn't seem to give a fuck about what he did or didn't. For some reason which Tony didn't want to admit, thinking about that made his anger to increase significantly.

He felt frustrated.

Tony walked directly to his bar and poured himself a glass of scotch. He threw his head back and drank all the liquid in one shot, then he left the glass on the table with a hard hit, it's was a thing of luck that it didn't break. Tony shook her head from side to side before filling another glass, one he would drink sip to sip while he was working. Or that was the fine until he decided to take the bottle and walk with it on his hands to the room he used like a workshop.

"What is his problem?" Tony asked when he left the bottle on a table before throwing himself to one of the couches with the glass on his hand.

" _I believe it is the order in your room sir,"_ was the response that he got from Jarvis.

"If he thinks that's a mess, I will show him," he said drinking a sip, "Jarvis, tell Dum-E to come here."

" _As you wish, sir."_

Some seconds later, Dum-E entered bumping with the door frame and a couple of things that were close to him.

"I need to calibrate your sensor," he decided exhaling softly, "Though is a little bit cute seeing you bumping with everything, you're like a baby. An annoying and cold baby. Eh, I wonder if Loki was an annoying and cold baby," Tony commented getting up and approaching Dum-E.

After some hours that Tony didn't bother on counting, his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He noticed it was a call from Bruce, so he decided to not answer it and take his laptop, which was on one of the tables. Tony left it on a chair, in front of where he was seated.

"Jarvis, can you start a video-call with our friend Brucie, please?" he asked sitting again.

" _Of course, sir_."

Tony waited a moment and turned his gaze to the screen when he heard Bruce's voice through the device.

"So, you choose to call and you don't even pay attention," he said with his arms crossed.

"I was waiting for you to talk first, I get nervous to do the first move," Tony answered with an almost flirty smile.

Bruce snorted and shook his head, amused.

"You don't change," he finally said with a smile.

"No," Tony replied smiling too.

"How's things going around there?" Bruce asked trying to hide his curiosity. Tony knew exactly who he was referring to.

"He dared to kidnap my tablet, Brucie!" Tony exclaimed looking at his laptop camera, feeling aggravated,

"Don't you have your laptop and phone?"

Talking through video-call while they were doing different things was common for them. It almost was like being in the same place. A lot of times they had met at the other's house with no real reason, without even doing something together. Tony'd be disassembling some device and Bruce'd be perfectly watching a movie on the sofa, why'd be different while they talked on chat?

"So? Are you justifying him?" Tony asked crossing his arms.

"You haven't even told me why he 'kidnapped' your tablet."

"Because my room is messy," the replied came in a really low voice, the speaker was looking clearly pissed and almost humiliated by the reason.

Bruce looked puzzled before talking.

"What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you."

Tony didn't know if Bruce truly hadn't heard him, couldn't believe it or simply he wanted to listen to it again for his own entertainment.

"Because my damned room was messy!" Tony answered euphorically, "Really, who he thinks he is? When though when I told him I don't need a babysitter! Everything's Pepper's fault."

Due to the sudden silence he received, Tony looked at the screen with a frown.

"Hey, you still there? Your phone broke or what?"

"Sorry," Bruce replied with a hand covering his lips, "I'm trying to hold my laughter, to be honest."

"What's funny about it?" Tony asked without changing his expression.

"How did he took it away from you?"

"Why do you have to answer with a question? Whatever, I got to the apartment and wasn't able to find it, I asked him if he had seen it and he gave me a lot of ambiguous answers until I realized he had it. 'Have you seen your room?'" Tony answered mocking Loki.

Bruce wasn't able to hold it anymore and started to laugh lively, making Tony to feel even more offended by the whole situation. He didn't have been able to threat Loki with Jarvis. He hadn't have a change.

"Really, what's so funny?"

Bruce tried to calm down, which took a couple of seconds where Tony wondered if maybe Bruce had lose control and had gone mad.

"The great Tony Stark grounded for not cleaning his room," he finally said with an amused sigh, recovering from laughing, "You can't deny the whole scenario is funny."

"No, it's not."

Tony seemed really angry and pissed for being stripped of his tablet for a reason he probably found stupid. Maybe it was the first time he got grounded for something, Bruce thought. The most possible thing was Tony always getting his way.

"You should probably tidy your room, then."

"I do _not_ negotiate with kidnappers."

"Stop getting yourself in trouble," Bruce said smiling. Tony wondered if the smile was because of his now ended laugh or because he knew that it was impossible to keep Tony away from trouble, "Ah, hey. The guys will pick me up 'cause Clint wants to go to a café that is according to him is wonderful and Natasha suggested that we all went. Can you give the apartment address so we can pick you up?"

"Ah, sure. But now I'm at my house—"

"What? Why?"

"I'm fixing some things," Tony answered with a shrug.

"You're so unpredictable when you want to be," Bruce said shaking his head before walking with his phone in hand around his house, "All the fuss to be living with Loki and now you're at your house."

"I'm working on something, and deciding to what things I should take there. I need my chair," he tried to justify.

"Uh, sure. So, what was the kidnapping issue?" Bruce asked sitting on a different couch.

"I already told you, he kidnap my tablet," Tony replied looking at him confusedly.

"No, no, I mean your text, what were you talking about?"

"Oh, that," Tony scratched his hair with the screwdriver's handle, "So, long story short, we both overslept and he didn't want me to take him to fucking college, so I chose to ignore his protests and just made him to get in the car. I think he hates me now. Oh, wait, maybe he stole my laptop because of that! He's seeking revenge, I knew it! The room has to be his excuse."

"Yes, because that makes so much sense," Bruce said taking his wallet from the desk next to him, "They should be coming soon, so I'm ending the call. Take a shower and change your clothes-

"How can you know if I hadn't take one yet?"

"It's obvious. I don't know if that shirt is grey or used to be white. How many hours have you been working in whatever you're working?" he asked lifting an eyebrow. As if Bruce didn't know the way Tony neglected himself when he was focused on some kind of project.

"You know? You're totally right, I should take a shower now. I don't remember the last time I took one, heh"

" _It was two days ago, sir."_

"Not a question you should've answered, Jarvis," he said reluctantly, "Well, Brucie, see ya!"

Tony ended the call before Bruce was able to reply or complain about the nickname and he closed the computer resting on the table.

"I don't smell _that_ bad," Tony said moving his face to his armpit and he inhaled deeply before hawking his throat, "Ugh, never mind."

Tony was able to comprehend Loki's comment.

The guy stood up and walked to his former? bedroom, where there was still part of his clothes, he took some before going to the bathroom. After a shower that made him feel lighter once he got rid of all that dust, Tony got dressed with a black AC/DC shirt and a pair of worn jeans. Then he exited the bathroom barefoot and he put a pair of black sneakers in his room.

While he walked to the living room, he noticed at one of the screens Steve's car getting closer to the house, so he took his wallet and collided whit Dum-E when he was walking to the front door.

"Hey, you. Move, go to your corner and think about why you shouldn't get in my way. Clue: I can dissemble you and sell your parts on eBay."

Dum-E moved his claw, showing regret and did what had been ordered. Tony got out from the front door while the car was parking, opened one of the back doors and got in, sitting next to Bruce.

"So, what's Nat driving? And why's Clint at the front? Was it really necessary to leave us with Steve, big back? Hi, by the way," Tony said earning some 'hi's from Steve and Bruce.

"Steve lost a bet," Natasha replied through the steering wheel.

"Sure, that's why you torture our backs," Tony said pointing at him and Bruce, "Nobody thinks on Brucies' sake?"

"I'm fine here," defended the alluded.

"See? He's not being sincere anymore."

Natasha rolled her eyes and started the car.

Tony wanted to ask why Clint was the one at the front seat, but he knew Nat would say something he wouldn't understand, course him in Russian or not answer at all. So he decided to let it pass. There would be time to hassle about it, there was no reason to risk their lives.

"So, where're we goin'?"

"To a wonderful café," answered Clint turning to Tony.

Tony let out a sigh, the same words that Bruce had said.

"And you could use some food. I'm assuming you didn't eat breakfast," Nat commented throwing a look at him through the rear-view mirror.

And Tony cursed himself for asking. He could feel worried gazes coming for Steve, Bruce and Clint on him.

"Tony, it's important that you—"

"Shut your mouth, Steve," he replied shooting a hatred gaze. "I had breakfast, right?" Tony tried to defend himself.

"Just coffee doesn't apply as breakfast," Bruce said from his seat.

"I ate toasts," Tony added. It wasn't completely a lie. He did have a toast. It was stolen from Loki, but it was a toast and it counted as breakfast.

"Oh, I can imagine where," Bruce murmured looking at Tony's window, who stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"So, you moved but now you're at your house. What, the honey moon didn't work out?" Clint asked turning at the road.

Tony wondered two things: how many people had heard Bruce's comment and how many had a wrong concept in their minds.

"I'm working on a project, that's all," Tony said downplaying the issue, because it wasn't really important.

"So, how it is?" Steve asked doubtful.

"The apartment? Small. But it's closer," he answered looking forward, trying to see if he knew the streets or the place they were heading.

"And your roommate?" Clint asked.

"Annoying," was his almost-instant response. _And a kidnapper,_ he wanted to add.

"Oh, really?" Nat asked without looking away from the road.

"In reality, Tony likes this guy," Bruce said trying not to laugh.

"Oh, yes, you don't know how much he fascinates me," Tony said rolling his eyes sarcastically, "How much 'til we get there?" he asked Nat.

"We're almost there," she answered taking a turn.

"What, trying to evade the matter?" Clint asked with a playful voice.

When Clint finished his question, Nat had already entered the park lot and Tony had commented the fact of arriving while the car stopped. He exited it quickly and stretched one he was out.

"Someone's trying to escape," Nat commented with a fierce smile getting out the car.

"Obviously, you know how annoying is having your back cramped by Mister here?" he asked pointing at Steve, who just looked at him with an eyebrow lifted, "Can we go inside now?"

"Why did you decide to move?" Steve asked while they walked to the place.

"'Cause MIT was too far and I always got there late. Pepper was bothered by that," he answered with a shrug.

"Why not moving alone?" was Clint's question.

"Dunno. Helping someone who needed a roommate?"

"Told you," Bruce added while he opened the door for the group to come in.

Tony just rolled his eyes again while he entered the place and followed Clint to a table. He had to admit it, he liked the Halloween décor. It was really soft, but it looked nice.

"His real objective is having him falling in love," Bruce concluded sitting next to Tony, earning a punch on the shoulder.

"If that was my objective I would have succeeded long time ago," he said with a proud smile.

"Sure," Clint said looking at him amused.

* * *

"Loki, go to able four," Amora ordered from the cash register.

Loki gave it a quick look to the indicated table and he could feel how fear invaded every cell of his body. _This could not be happening._

"Can I take nine, change tables with Skurge?" he asked trying to dissimulate his feeling by his voice.

"No. Go, c'mon."

Loki let out a sigh before putting a smile on his face. Damned good service policy.

He walked tentatively towards the table, fortunately Stark was not facing him and maybe he would not look at him. Maybe.

Without caring if he interrupted the conversation the group was having, Loki spoke once he found himself close enough.

"Good afternoon, I will be your waiter today. My name is—"

"Loki?" Tony asked turning. Loki noticed he looked really surprised and rolled his eyes internally.

"That is what my name tag says, I am so happy that you know how to read. Your friends must be really proud of you," he said keeping his smile, "Have you decided what are you going to order?"

Tony cursed the smiles that his friends had to fight to hide. He was sure that Clint would start laughing like crazy at any moment.

Bruce tried to lighten the situation by being the first to order. Followed by Nat, Steve and Clint, who was still trying to hold his laugh. Tony was the last to order and he decided for the pancakes with ice cream. He had to take advantage of the fact that they served it.

"Anything more?" Loki asked after writing it on his notepad.

"No, go away, _shoo_ ," Tony said waving his hands at him.

Loki decided to not say anything, he would not risk his work due to Stark's manners. He walked to Amora and gave her the order, then we walked to another table, cursing in his mind. After that, he waited for the table four order to be ready and he placed it on a tray he carried there.

When Loki had already left the group, the conversation started again.

"Now I understand why you want to enamor him, Tony," Nat said before drinking from her strawberry milkshake.

"How funny," he answered taking the fork with pancakes to his mouth. He had to admit it, it was delicious.

"Do you get along?" Steve asked taking a bite from his burger.

"Nah. He hates me," he said with ice cream falling for his cheek.

"Why?"

"No idea. That's what I'm trying to find out."

He took another fork full of pancakes and the same old question arose on his mind. What had really happened? He needed to find information and the only way he could think of was getting to Loki's good side, which would be, at least, interesting.

"How's that going?" Nat asked after her last sip.

"At least I know he's got feelings," he answered shrugging.

"Maybe you fucked his girlfriend," Clint suggested. Tony gave him a look with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course," he replied without losing his expression.

"Hey, it wouldn't be the first time," Clint excused himself lifting both of his eyebrows.

"In my defense, if they loved their boyfriends so much, they wouldn't have been carried away," he said showing his hands.

"Shameless," Steve said before finishing his Coke bottle.

"Not my fault."

Nat rolled her eyes and Bruce shook his head.

Minutes later Loki got there with the same tray to take the dirty dishes.

"Are you going to need something else?"

"No, only the bill," Steve replied smiling. Tony wondered why the smile.

"Okay." Loki said nodding while he took Steve's plate.

"I'm not giving you any tips," Ton said before emptying his drink and leaving the glass on the table.

"That would not be necessary," Loki replied taking the glass and putting it on the metal tray, "You are already paying for my food," he finished with a bright smile.

Tony could feel Bruce's elbow bumping his ribs and he felt the urge to punch his arm.

"You have to survive someway," he murmured loud enough only for Loki to listen, with a satisfied smile.

"I will take the bill in a moment," Loki said almost automatically, trying not to let the words hit him so much.

Loki felt a weight on his shoulders and he wanted to drown in the dishwasher water. It was something really strange, something was wrong. He knew something had changed on his face when he went to the cash register to ask for the bill and Amora looked at him with a hint of worry.

"Is everything alright?" she asked still staring at him.

"Yes," he replied hearing his voice weird. He softly cleared his throat before repeating it, "Yes."

"Any particular reason why you didn't want to attend that table?"

Amora knew she was right, Loki usually just went to the tablet that she assigned for him, without emitting any sort of comment.

Loki looked as the bill came out from the register without replying. Although he knew that his silence was a kind of confirmation, he knew that he could not tell anything to Amora. He could not even think of a good excuse, why had his brain decided to shut down?

"Skurge!" called the blonde, gaining his boyfriend's attention, "Can you take the bill to table four? Loki feels a little bit dizzy."

Skurge gave a look to Loki, who did look tired.

"Sure," he replied taking the paper from Amora.

"Thank you," Loki said succeeding at smiling.

"Go to rest," Skurge told him while putting on Loki's shoulder the cloth on his hand.

Skurge walked to the table and Amora turned to Loki again.

"You can go to the back and refresh a little, if you want to."

"I will," he said turning quickly.

Tony found himself weirdly surprised when he noticed the muscular guy giving them the bill, had they changed the skinny one? He turned on time to see the weird-looking expression on Loki0s face and he couldn't help but feeling a little bit responsible. He wouldn't blame himself completely, Tony hadn't done anything to him.

He was the one who took the bill from the guy and left the money on it before complain.

"Goddamnit! I told you we weren't leaving tips, Bruce!" he exclaimed standing up.

"But I didn't—"

Bruce was silenced by a stomp given by Tony before he started walking to the door, followed by the rest of the group. Bruce shook his head letting out a sigh before starting to move his feet to get out from the place.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hello there! It's been a long time, but this is kinda a long chapter, so...
> 
> (I actually wasn't sure about leaving it there, but it kinda happened xD)
> 
> I've been going throught difficults days, so I'm really sorry for taking to long between chapters, I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed writing the café scene!
> 
> Lost of love to anyone who is still reading this♥


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